Utagawa school

His pupil, Toyokuni I, took over after Toyoharu's death and led the group to become the most famous and powerful woodblock print school for the remainder of the 19th century.

Kunisada I (Toyokuni III) apparently despised Toyoshige, and refused to acknowledge him as head of the Utagawa school.

This symbol was easy to recognize, so the people who wore the Utagawa crested kimono did not need the ticket to the Edo theater at that time.

Utagawa Kazumon did not only pay attention to the aesthetic of the picture, but also tried to maintain a close relationship with the masses, calling himself “painter”.

[4] Shita-e drawings are still used in the present time, with rough sketches and more refined brush paintings, on different kinds of paper with and without corrections, depending on the artist.

It is still uncertain who produced the final shita-e, however the clues that remain are the series of sketches and corrections in red ink.

More research remains to be done in this area, yet one reason for the vast success of the Utagawa School and its ability to support so many artists was the studio setup of printmaking in the nineteenth century.

Paradoxically, the focus on a limited number of great printmakers of the day actually increased their standing and sales, and so supported the pupils beneath them.