Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Utagawa Kuniyoshi was one of the last great masters of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, born in Edo, now Tokyo, and trained in the Utagawa school. He made his name in 1827 with a series of prints of the heroes of the Chinese novel the Suikoden, full of tattooed warriors in violent action. He went on to design dramatic triptychs of legend, ghosts and monsters, landscapes using Western perspective, satirical prints that dodged government censorship, and many pictures of the cats he kept. The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum hold important collections of his prints.