Artist – Utagawa KUNISADA III (Utagawa Kunidasa SanDai, 歌川国貞 三代) (1848–1920) was an ukiyo-e printmaker of the Utagawa school, specializing in yakusha-e (pictures of kabuki actors). He began studying under Utagawa Kunisada I at the age of 10, and continued under Kunisada II after their master's death. He originally signed his prints "Kunimasa" or "Baidō Kunimasa". About 1889, he began signing his prints "Kunisada", "Baidō Kunisada" or "Kōchōrō Kunisada". By 1892, he was using "Hōsai", "Kōchōrō Hōsai", "Baidō Hōsai", and "Utagawa Hōsai". Quite often his name "Kōchōrō HŌSAI" is misread as 'TOYOSAI' (cf. 'Aliases'). Nevertheless, this misread name is also used in the large ukiyo-e databases. .

During the course of his career, KUNISADA-III designed templates for a few thousand woodcuts. Like his two masters, his focus was on kabuki prints and actor portraits (yakusha-e, 役者絵). During the Meiji period, he was supposed to be in second place behind Toyohara Kunichika. He became leading artist in the field of the design of "oshi-e" prints ("押 絵",  relief type silk prints for decorationg Hagoita or Hanetsuki bats). In addition, he designed prints of sumo wrestlers (sumo-e, 相撲絵), memory prints (shini-e,  死絵) of acts and actors, bijin-e (美人絵, "pictures of beautiful women"), shun-ga (春画, prints with sexual content, lit. "pictures of spring") and kaika-e (開化絵, educational or explanational prints, revealing "Western" habits, goods etc. imported into Japan).  KUNISADA-III  made prints depicting the life in the court of Tennō, as well as landscapes and bird's eye pictures with references to area attractions as well as individual prints. He reported on the first Japanese-Chinese war (senso-e, 戦争絵, lit. "war prints"), even including cartoons directed against China. He made numerous templates for kiri-e, papercraft prints for cut-outs for children, and children's toys (omocha-e), including boards and fabrics for paper lanterns. In the years 1897 and 1898, KUNISADA-III was commissioned to design a comprehensive series of 55 Genji prints, a series, entitled "The 54 chapters of Genji" ("Genji honbun gojūgo-satsu", "源氏本文五十五冊").This series, his master Kunisada (I)  desiged nearly 50 years earlier. It was supposed the last series of Genji  prints of an ukiyo-e artist. After 1900, only a few prints are known to be designed by KUNISADA-III.


Personal life -  KUNISADA-III was born as the son of KINEYA Teizan (キネヤ  テイザン)  and his wife TAKENOUCHI Satō (竹内佐 藤) in the Asakusa area of Edo. He received the youth name Chōtarō. Shortly after his birth the family moved to Nihombashi ward in Fukagawa of Edo, where the family opened a butcher's shop. His father was known under the stage name Osakaya EIJIRO as naga-uta-musician at various kabuki theaters. His mother came from a family of lower nobility (御家人 gokenin). Later in his life KUNISADA-III adopted his mother's surname  because of the associated higher social status, and was known by the official name Takenouchi Eikyu (竹内栄久).

In in 1862, through the mediation of the father of Utagawa Kunimaro and Kyōgen-actor Sakurada Jisuke III, KUNISADA-III  aged 12, was adopted to the studio of Kunisada-I to start training as a printmaker. After Kunisada (-I)'s death in January 1865, KUNISADA-III was adopted to the studio of Kunisada-II, where he continued his education. Kunisada-II gave him the stage name Kunimasa (IV), which was to be understood as special award, because "Kunimasa" was the name, Kunisada-II used himself, when he started his career as a woodcut artist under Kunsiada-I. The first of print signed by KUNISADA-III as "Kunimasa" appeared in 1867. In the 1880s KUNISADA-III was trained as a master of tea ceremonies. He was praised in a contemporary newspaper article for his  professional and artistic performance as an artist within the field of wood cut printing as well as master of tea ceremonies.

After the death Kunisada-II in 1880, KUNISADA-III tried to get the permission to run the artist name "Kunisada" from Kunisada-II's heirs, but they declinded the permission. However, from 1889 for an initial period of three years, he used his to sign as "Kunisada". To avoid further disputes with the family of Kunisada-II, he later gave up to use this name and instead took on the stage name Hosai.
KUNISADA-III was married, and had at least one issue. His son Kokunimasa (小 国 政) became his most successful disciple. In a newspaper interview in 1898,  KUNISADA-III mentioned that he had recently moved into a newly built, modest house in the district Senzoku in the district Asakusa. In this house he died on October 26 in 1920 after a serious illness.


Aliases - KUNISADA-III's childhood name was KINEYA  Chōtarō (キネ ヤ   チョウタロウ?). KUNISADA-III's prints were signed first with "Kunimasa" (国政). Formally known as Utagawa HIDEHISA (歌川 栄久). From 1873 to 1888 he used to sign as "Baido Kunimasa" (梅堂 国政). From 1889 until 1892 he signed with Kunisada (国貞) or Utagawa Kunisada (歌川 国貞), Baido Kunisada (梅堂 国貞), Kochoro Kunisada (香朝楼 国貞), and Kochoro (香朝楼). After 1892, he changed his name to Hosai (豊斎), the first kanji of the name was the same as the first written kanji of the name of the previous heads of the Utagawa School, "Toyo"kuni  ("豊" 国). Variants of this signature were Kochoro Hosai (香朝楼 豊斎) Hosai Kochoro (豊斎 香朝楼), Hosai Baido (豊斎 梅 堂), Baido Hosai (梅堂 豊斎) and Utagawa Hosai (歌川 豊斎). Within the line of his predecessors in woodblock arts, KUNISADA-III may be referred as TOYOKUNI-V but this attribution has never been used by himself.


Disciples -  KUNISADA-III's most famous student as a woodblock artist was his son Kokunimasa (小 国 政), who was highly recognized as artist of yakusha-e (pictures of kabuki actors) and senso-e (戦争絵, lit. "war prints") in the last decade of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. Other students like Kunimasa V (国 政 五代), Kunimune (国 梅), Kunitora II (国 虎 二代), and Masanobu (政 信), only had been active woodblock artists for a few years in the last decades of the 19th century. KUNISADA-III's student Kunikazu (国 一) designed woodblocks in late Ukiyo-e style, using the name Otake Etsudō (尾竹 越堂) as an outstanding member of Nihonga style (日本画, Japanese painting), an attempt to conserve traditional Japanese painting.