Artist – YOSHIFUJI ( 歌 川 芳藤) was born in 1828 as Nishimura Tōtarō (西村 藤太郎). In the late 1840ies or early 1850ies he became a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳), thus adopted the ga-name 'Utagawa YOSHIFUJI' (歌川 芳春), just in order to reveal that he was part of the tradition of the Utagawa school following Kuniyoshi. He produced bijin-ga, kaika-e, musha-e, and Yokohama-e and many other kinds of prints. He ist famous for his numerous toy prints (omocha-e), thus often named 'Toy-print Yoshifuji'.

 

Personal life - There is only sparse Information on the personal life of YOSHIFUJI available. He lived throughout his lifetime in Edo, first reported for Haruki- cho (春木町), Hongo,  later moved to Kojima-cho,  Asakusa (浅草小島町), and from 16th to 20th year of Meiji (1887) in 58, Kita-sansuji-cho, Asakusa (浅草北三筋町58), maybe the place where he died in his 60th year.

Aliases -  In addition to his regular go name Utagawa YOSHIFUJI ( 歌 川 芳藤), he used his ga with the epithet  Ippōsai (一峰斎)

Disciples - no known disciples