About the Author

The Tuttle Publishing Company was established in 1948 in Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, Japan and is today regarded as a premier publisher and seller of books rooted in Asian culture, language and history.

Since its founding in 1948, Tuttle has published more than 6,000 books and today maintains an active backlist of around 2,000 titles.

Today, Tuttle publishes 150 new titles each year focusing on Asian languages, Asian food & cooking, gardening & flower arranging, crafts & origami, children's books, martial arts, Asian literature, games & graphic novels, Asian history & culture, health & fitness, self-help & Eastern religion, Asian art & collectibles, interior design & architecture, travel guides, maps, and business books.

Utagawa Kunisada (also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III) was born in 1786 in Edo (Tokyo). Utagawa school great master Toyokuni took notice of Kunisada's sketches and soon took him on as an apprentice. Though not much is known about his life, Kunisada rose to fame as the most successful, popular and prolific ukiyo-e woodblock print artist of his time, surpassing contemporaries such as Hiroshige and Hokusai.