(b Aizu Prov. [now Fukushima Prefect.], 1773; d Edo, 1810). Woodblock print designer and book illustrator. He went to Edo as a boy to work in a dyer’s shop. Showing an early talent for yakushae (‘pictures of actors’), Kunimasa came to the attention of (2) Utagawa Toyokuni I. He joined Toyokuni’s studio and may have been his first student. He began to design yakushae in 1795, principally okubie (‘large–head pictures’) portraits, and later half- and full-length portraits. His representative okubie are Ichikawa Danjuro VI (Tokyo, Riccar A. Mus.), Sawamura Sojuro II (Chicago, IL, A. Inst.) and the Actor Ichikawa Ebizo as Shibaraku (Tokyo, Riccar A. Mus.). He also designed bijinga (‘pictures of beautiful women’). In 1797 he produced the illustrations for Kakutsu yushi (‘Travellers well-versed in the pleasure quarters’; Tokyo, N. Diet Lib.), the first of his four sharebon (popular novels, often licentious). He also collaborated with (2) Toyokuni I on the illustrated theatre books, Yakusha sanjuni so (‘Thirteen aspects of actors’; 1799) and Yakusha gakuya tsu (‘Backstage actors’; 1799; both Tokyo, N. Diet Lib.).

Part of the Utagawa family

• Utagawa Kunimasa
  • Japan, §IX, 3(iii)(c): Prints, c 1780–c 1800
  • Japan, §IX, 3(iii)(e): Prints, c 1820–1868
  • Utagawa
  • Utagawa: (2) Utagawa Toyokuni I