RYUSAI Shigeharu / 柳斎重春

Ukiyo-e printmaker. Born in Nagasaki. Pupil of Yanagawa Shigenobu and perhaps of Hokusai. Contemporary accounts refer to him as the only full-time professional designer of actor prints in Osaka. His first print, signed Nagasaki Kunishige, published in Osaka at age of 17. In 1826 changed his name to Ryusay Shigeharu. Said to have returned to Nagasaki after the civil disturbances in the mid-1830s. May have gone back to Osaka in the late 1840s and, once again using the name of Kunishige, designed the bust portraits bearing this name. An indifferent artist.

Roberts, Laurance, P. "A Dictionary of Japanese Artists", John Weatherhill Inc., New York, 1980, p. 145