After his older brother, Nagoyoshi, opened an osier (raised cloth picture) shop in the Minamidenmacho district, Kunichika studied under the artist of the Hasegawa school Chikanobu TOYOHARA to learn how to draw portraits of kabuki actors; he went on to draw original paintings for hagoita battledores (some says that he took on a job at hagoita maker Rinshun's studio).
兄の長吉が南伝馬町に押絵屋を開業したことがきっかけで、長谷川派の豊原周信に師事し役者似顔を学び、羽子板押絵の原図を制作した（一説には羽子板師・に就いたとも言われる)。