Kuniyoshi also built a good relationship with various cultural figures, including Zeshin SHIBATA (a maki-e painter [Japanese lacquer sprinkled with gold or silver powder] and a traditional painter) and Kazan WATANABE (the chief retainer of the TAHARA clan, a scholar and a painter), and his paintings show that he acquired new knowledge from them and used it in his own way.
国芳はまた、柴田是真（蒔絵、画家）、渡辺崋山（田原藩家老、学者、画家）ら当時の文化人とも交流があり、画風にも当時の新知識を彼なりに研究・吸収した跡が見られる。