Toyokuni

Utagawa Toyokuni (1769, Edo - February 24, 1825, Edo) (Japanese: 歌川豐國), also often referred to as Toyokuni I, to distinguish him from the members of his school who took over his gō (art-name) after he died, was a great master of ukiyo-e, known in particular for his Kabuki actor prints. He was one of the heads of the renowned Utagawa school of Japanese woodblock artists, and was the person who really moved it to the position of great fame and power it occupied for the rest of the nineteenth century.