Comments:

Family name Kyômaruya; personal name Seijiro; surnames Suzuki, Konishi, and Utagawa; lived in the Namba Shinchi district of Osaka; worked with (or studied with) Sadamasu Kunimasu (signed at least once as Kunimasu monjin ["pupil"] Hirosada on a print collaboration in 1852 for the background used in an actor print design in a series by the Edo master Utagawa Kunisada).

The most important — and prolific — Osaka print designer of the post-Tenpô period, coincident with the relaxation of the 1842-47 ban on actor prints [part of the Tenpô kaikaku] and the replacement of the ôban with the chûban sheet as the dominant format in kamigata-e; produced many successful okubi-e single sheets and polyptychs in the later Osaka style, influencing many other printmakers of the period.

Pupils include: Hironobu; Hirokane (Sadahiro II); Sadayuki

* The scholar Roger Keyes has proposed that Hirosada was synonymous with Utagawa Sadahiro I (thus reversing the characters of the name), but this theory is not universally accepted. Keyes has also argued that the artist's first art name was Kôgadô Tamikuni circa 1823-1826, given to him by Yoshikuni. However, Hendrick Lühl has shown that the artist Tamikuni signed works circa 1823-1838. Those interested in reading more about these theories should refer to TWOP and HOP in the Bibliography.