Born in 1807 in Shimosa province, Hashimoto Kenjiro, later known as Utagawa Sadahide, was a late-Edo and early-Meiji period woodblock print artist specializing in Yokohama prints. Sadahide is also widely recognized for his early implementation of wide panoramic angles, linear perspectives, and bird's eye views. Among his most common motifs are Westerners, samurai warriors, and landscapes (e.g., Suehiro: Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, 1865). 

After serving as a pupil of Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III), Sadahide began working as an illustrator circa 1826 and throughout the 1830s produced a variety of bijin-ga and yakusha-e, or actor prints. In addition to standard print designs, Sadahide was deeply interested in foreign affairs, an interest which he later factored into his works. In 1850 he compiled illustrations for the book, Kaigai Shinwa, detailing the Chinese Opium War, and five years later illustrated Tomonmune Mamiya's Kita Ezo Zusetsu, an account of Japan's northernmost frontier. 

Over the decade, Sadahide dabbled in cartography and produced his own world map modeled after a Dutch original. His foreign interests were rewarded as Japan became increasingly internationalized: The 1854 Kanagawa Convention established trade with the United States, and the subsequent Harris Treaty opened two additional seaports. The later Ansei Treaties further extended trading to the Netherlands, Russia, France, and England. By 1859, the city of Yokohama had become a central hub for international trade and a hotspot for foreign activity. From 1860 to 1863, he produced ninety-three Yokohama prints depicting Westerners, utilizing a wide-angle format. Sadahide then relocated to Nagasaki Prefecture and, over the next several years, collaborated with Utagawa Hiroshige II, Utagawa Kuniteru, and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi on the series Suehiro: Fifty-three Stations of Tokaido, 1865. With its feature at the 1867 World Exhibition in Paris, the series thus represented an end to the isolationist Edo period. 

In 1871, Sadahide produced his final work, a gargantuan panoramic print entitled, Yokohama Yokuran no Shinkei and published several books on Western history and geography. Utagawa Sadahide passed away two years later at the age of sixty-six.