with blackened teeth and
Kintarō (Yamanba and Kintaro Sakazuki series) '' c. 1803
Early life Utamaro was born
Kitagawa Ichitarō in . As an adult, he was known by the given names Yūsuke, and later Yūki. Early accounts cite his birthplace as Kyoto, Osaka,
Yoshiwara in
Edo (modern Tokyo), or
Kawagoe in
Musashi Province (modern
Saitama Prefecture); none of these places has been verified. The names of his parents are not known; it has been suggested his father may have been a Yoshiwara teahouse owner, or
Toriyama Sekien, an artist who tutored him and who wrote of Utamaro playing in his garden as a child. Utamaro was married although little is known about his wife and there is no record of their having had children. However, his works include many prints of tender and intimate domestic scenes featuring the same woman and child over several years.
Apprenticeship and early work Sometime during his childhood Utamaro came under the tutelage of Sekien, who described his pupil as bright and devoted to art. Sekien, although trained in the upper-class
Kanō school of
Japanese painting, had become in middle age a practitioner of
ukiyo-e and his art was aimed at the townspeople in
Edo. His students included
haiku poets and ukiyo-e artists such as
Eishōsai Chōki. Utamaro's first published work may be an illustration of
eggplants in the
haikai poetry anthology
Chiyo no Haru published in 1770. His next known works appear in 1775 under the name Kitagawa Toyoaki,—the cover to a
kabuki playbook entitled
Forty-eight Famous Love Scenes which was distributed at the Edo playhouse
Nakamura-za. As Toyoaki, Utamaro continued as an illustrator of popular literature for the rest of the decade, and occasionally produced single-sheet '''' portraits of kabuki actors. The young publisher
Tsutaya Jūzaburō enlisted Utamaro and in the autumn of 1782 the artist hosted a lavish banquet whose list of guests included artists such as Kiyonaga,
Kitao Shigemasa, and
Katsukawa Shunshō, as well as writers such as
Ōta Nanpo (1749–1823)and . It was at this banquet that it is believed the artist first announced his new art name,
Utamaro. Per custom, he distributed a specially made print for the occasion, in which, before a screen bearing the names of his guests, is a self-portrait of Utamaro making a deep bow. Utamaro's first work for Tsutaya appeared in a publication dated as 1783:
The Fantastic Travels of a Playboy in the Land of Giants, a '''' picture book created in collaboration with his friend Shimizu Enjū, a writer. In the book, Tsutaya described the pair as making their debuts. At some point in the mid-1780s, probably 1783, he went to live with Tsutaya Jūzaburō. It is estimated that he lived there for approximately five years. He seems to have become a principal artist for the Tsutaya firm. Evidence of his prints for the next few years is sporadic, as he mostly produced illustrations for books of
kyōka ("crazy verse"), a parody of the classical
waka form. None of his work produced during the period 1790–1792 has survived.
Height of fame In about 1791 Utamaro gave up designing prints for books and concentrated on making single portraits of women displayed in half-length, rather than the prints of women in groups favoured by other ukiyo-e artists. In 1793 he achieved recognition as an artist, and his semi-exclusive arrangement with the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō ended. Utamaro then went on to produce several series of well-known works, all featuring women of the
Yoshiwara district. Over the years, he also created a number of volumes of animal, insect, and nature studies and
shunga, or
erotica. Shunga prints were quite acceptable in Japanese culture, not associated with a negative concept of pornography as found in western cultures, but considered rather as a natural aspect of human behavior and circulated among all levels of Japanese society.
Later life Tsutaya Jūzaburō died in 1797, and Utamaro thereafter lived in Kyūemon-chō, then Bakuro-chō, and finally near the Benkei Bridge. Utamaro was apparently very upset by the loss of his long-time friend and supporter. Some commentators feel that after this event, his work never reached the heights previously attained. A law went into effect in 1790 requiring prints to bear a censor's seal of approval to be sold. Censorship increased in strictness over the following decades, and violators could receive harsh punishments. From 1799 even preliminary drafts required approval. A group of Utagawa-school offenders including
Toyokuni had their works repressed in 1801. In 1804, Utamaro ran into legal trouble over a series of prints of
samurai warriors, with their names slightly disguised; the depiction of warriors, their names, and
their crests was forbidden at the time. Records have not survived of what sort of punishment Utamaro received.
Arrest of 1804 The , published from 1797 to 1802, detailed the life of the 16th-century military ruler,
Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The work was widely adapted, such as for
kabuki and
bunraku theatre. When artists and writers put out prints and books based on the
Ehon Taikōki in the disparaged
ukiyo-e style, it attracted reprisals from the government. In probably the most famous case of censorship of the Edo period, Utamaro was imprisoned in 1804, after which he was manacled along with Tsukimaro, Toyokuni,
Shuntei,
Shun'ei, and
Jippensha Ikku for fifty days and their publishers subjected to heavy fines. Government documents of the case are no longer extant, and there are few other documents relating to the incident. It appears that Utamaro was most prominent of the group. The artists might have offended the authorities by identifying the historical figures by name and with their identifying crests and other symbols, which was prohibited, and by depicting Hideyoshi with prostitutes of the pleasure quarters. Utamaro's censored prints include one of the
daimyō Katō Kiyomasa lustily gazing at a Korean dancer at a party, another of Hideyoshi holding the hand of his page
Ishida Mitsunari in a sexually suggestive manner, and another of Hideyoshi with his five consorts viewing the cherry blossoms at the temple
Daigo-ji in Kyoto, a historical event famous for displaying Hideyoshi's extravagance. This last displays the names of each consort while placing them in the typical poses of courtesans at a Yoshiwara party. Utamaro (c. 1802–04) Katō Kiyomasa.jpg|
Katō Kiyomasa at a party with Korean dancers Utamaro (c. 1802–04) Taikō gosai rakutō yūzan no zu.jpg|
Hideyoshi and his Five Wives Viewing the Cherry-blossoms at Higashiyama Death Records give Utamaro's death date as the 20th day of the 9th month of the year
Bunka, which equates to 31 October 1806. He was given the Buddhist
posthumous name Shōen Ryōkō Shinshi. Apparently with no heirs, his tomb at the temple was left untended. A century later, in 1917, admirers of Utamaro had the decayed grave repaired. ==Pupils==