Artist – KITAGAWA UTAMARO (喜多川 歌麿) In his youth, he studied under Toriyama Sekien (鳥山 石燕, ga-name of Sano Toyofusa) of the Kano school.  UTAMARO called himself Toyofusa, the real family name of his master. He changed later to Toyoaki. In this period, his style was influenced by the elder Ukiyoe artists Katsukawa Shuncho, Torii Kiyonaga and Kitao Shigemasa. During Temmei period (1781-89) he broke away and developed his own style with elegant lines. From then on he called himself UTAMARO. Most prominent examples of this period are the brilliant color woodcuts Ehon mushi erami (絵本虫選) (1787), Shiohi no tsuto (潮干のつと) and Momo chidori (百千鳥), most of them published by Tsutaya Jūzaburō.

In 1783, UTAMARO went to live with his publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō (蔦屋 重三郎). Tsutaya Jūzaburō was one of the most successful editors of ukiyo-e, but he died at the early age of 48 in 1797 and Utamaro was much sought after by rival editors . He tried to meet the demand, but his pictures somehow lost quality.

With the beginning of the Kansei period (1789-1819), he created bijin ōkubi-e, i.e., images with the heads of the portrayed occupying the whole sheet. The women are portrayed with a wealth of details and  they include different temperaments, social classes, and also show their inner states, far different from the idealized, expressionless beauties who have flooded the genre afterwards. These are the prints that impressed the French Impressionists in a particularly sustainable way with his use of partial views and his emphasis on light and shade, which they often tried to imitate.

Besides his well known series with the beauties of Yoshiwara, he produced his famous "Eight Views of Lake Biwa" (Ōmi hakkei) or their homophonic parodied variants "Eight Vows of Lake Biwa" (Ōmi hakkei), replacing Ōmi (province) with ōmi (lovers) and hakkei (eight views) with the same hakkei (eight vows).

In 1804, he produced a number of prints based on historical works that were banned by the government. He then went to jail for three days and was manacled along with Toyokuni, Shuntei, and others for fifty days and their publishers subjected to heavy fines.


Personal life - KITAGAWA UTAMARO (喜多川 歌麿) was born as KITAGAWA Ichitarō (北川市太郎) . Little is known of Utamaro's personal life. His birthplace and year of birth are uncertain. The year of birth is mostly reported as 1753.

Utamaro was married, although little is known about his wife and there is no record of having issue. There are, however, many prints of tender and intimate domestic scenes featuring the same woman and child over several years of the child's growth among his works. UTAMARO died on October 31st in 1806. He was given the Buddhist posthumous name Shōen Ryōkō Shinshi (秋円了教信士). His tomb in Senkōji (専光寺) was restored in 1917 by some of his admirers. His student Koikawa Shunchō married UTAMARO's widow on the master's death and took on the name Utamaro II.


Aliases - KITAGAWA Ichitarō ((北川市太郎, presumably his childhood name. KITAGAWA Toyofusa (in his years at kano school), KITAGAWA Toyoaki (or Toyoakira)  (北川豊章), and KITAGAWA UTAMARO (喜多川 歌麿). As an adult, he was known by the given names Yūsuke (勇助) and later Yūki (勇記).


Disciples -  Koikawa Shunchō (Utamaro II) died in 1831. After 1820, Shuncho produced his work under the name Kitagawa Tetsugorō. UTAMARO's pupil Kitagawa Tsukimaro (喜多川 月麿, 1794–1836 ) was one of the more successful ones. Other known disciples are Hidemaru (秀丸. early 19th century) and Bokusen (1736-1824). They failed to build on UTAMARO's success.