Saru Gallery
       Japanese Prints & Japanese Paintings

Biography Kunimasa IV, Utagawa (1848 - 1920)

Before becoming Kunisada III, and head of the Utagawa school in 1889, this artist was known as Utagawa Kunimasa IV, or Baidô Kunimasa, or Baidô Hôsai. He studied with both Utagawa Kunisada and with Utagawa Kunisada II. Together with Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900) he is the most important Meiji kabuki artist, mainly depicting the two leading kabuki stars of that period, Ichikawa Danjurô IX and Onoe Kikugoro V.