Sadahide Utagawa, The Battle of Kawanakajima

Sadahide Utagawa

Sadahide was a prolific but minor woodblock printmaker and illustrator. His style was born out of the Utagawa school in which he studied, his early works centring around Bijin-ga, beauty portraits and later producing ukiyo-e prints in the landscape and musha-e genres. However, he is most well-known for his Yokohama-e; scenes of modern industry and foreigners in Yokohama. Sadahide produced not just print, but guidebooks to Yokohama, teaching the habits of foreign residents hoping to dispel myths about them, and also show the Japanese people what can learn from Western customs.

Throughout his work, Sadahide’s effective and decorative prints show the influence of Western perspective and chiaroscuro. He was chosen as one ukiyo-e artist in the Tokugawa Shogun’s delegation to the 1867 Paris exhibition, giving him the chance to be shown internationally in a period where he was a best-selling artist in Japan.