LITERATURE
Kojima Usui, Sansei Utagawa Toyokuni okubi yakusha-e shu (Tokyo
1930)
Suzuki Juzo, "Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, Eisen", Ukiyo-e taikei Vol X
(Tokyo 1974)
Suzuki Juzo, Konjaku kabuki meiyu, (Riccar Museum, 1977)

According to the brief biography of Kunisada found on a diptych memorial portrait of Kunisada by Kunichika, written by Kanagaki Robun using his pseudonym Yugyodojin Tonami, Kunisada planned a series of one hundred and fifty okubi-e portraits of actors past and present, which would serve as a monument to his career. Only the most expensive materials were used and the finest engraver's and printers employed.

Sadly Kunisada died before completion of the project and only seventy-two prints are known of which twelve are by Yoshitora, who joined Kunisada in working on the project in 1862. The earliest of the prints date from 1860. In addition two proof prints for unpublished prints portraying Arashi Sanpachi and Osagawa Tsuneyo are extant, as are preparatory drawings for two more, portraits of Ichikawa Omezo as Danshichi Kurobei and Iwai Hanshiro III as Mikazuki Osen.

All of the actor portraits bearing Kunisada's signature gave their performances during his lifetime and in most cases Kunisada used his own prints to serve as a model. There are some notable exceptions, however, in which Kunisada employs prints by Toyokuni I. Unlike his series of actor portraits on the same theme published ten years earlier Kunisada appears to restrict himself to Toyokuni as his model. In the earlier series artists of the Katsukawa school and even Sharaku are recruited to serve as the basis of the designs.

In style the prints are reminiscent of the chuban okubi-e of Osaka but it is rare for the prints of this type to be composed on such a monumental scale. That Kunisada's prints influenced the next generation of artists can be seen in the Meiji period okubi-e of Yoshitoshi and Kunichika