Utagawa Toyokuni

[3] Toyokuni seems not to have been an "intuitive genius"[4] determined to forge a new path; rather, he seems to have studied intently those who came before him, particularly Utamaro, Chōbunsai Eishi and Eishōsai Chōki.

Toyokuni's two major pupils were the woodblock print masters Kunisada and Kuniyoshi, but he had a host of students in his school.

Indeed, so powerful was the Utagawa school after Toyokuni's time that almost every Japanese print artist of note either had one of these two characters in his gō, or, like Yoshitoshi, was a student of one who did.

[attribution needed][26] He is also credited with such innovations as diptych, triptych and polyptych formats,[27] and with training future masters of ukiyo-e.[28] His work captured the world around him, particularly the kabuki theatre, with great clarity, and his style was a step forward.

In addition, it was commercially successful, and thus freed woodblock prints from many of the restrictive canons which had limited previous generations of artists.

Here is a very incomplete list of his print series, with dates: Media related to Utagawa Toyokuni at Wikimedia Commons