Kabuki Actor Iwai Shijyaku as Kumasaka Ocho raising a knife.

Biography:

Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900)

Kunichika was a leading Japanese woodblock print artist and highly influential.

Talented as a child, at about thirteen he became a student of Tokyo’s then leading print maker Utagawa Kunisada. He produced numerous wood blocks of popular and famous Kabuki plays and actors of which he was very knowledgeable. He is best known for his prints of kabuki actors and scenes from popular plays of the time. Kunichika also made many bijinga (beautiful women) woodblocks.