Utagawa Toyoharu

Utagawa Toyoharu (c. 1735 – 1814) was a pivotal Japanese artist in the ukiyo-e genre, best known as the founder of the influential Utagawa school. Born in Toyooka, he first trained in Kyoto and later in Edo (modern Tokyo), where he began producing woodblock print designs around 1768. Toyoharu quickly distinguished himself through his *uki-e* or "floating pictures," a genre where he expertly incorporated Western-style geometrical perspective to create an unprecedented sense o…