Kitagawa Utamaro: The Ukiyo-e Legend and His Prints of Edo Beauties

Pictures of Actors

Kitagawa Utamaro (?–1806) was undoubtedly Japan’s greatest artist of bijinga (pictures of beautiful women) in the ukiyo-e genre, but like many working in ukiyo-e, it took some time for him to establish himself. When he began his career in Edo (now Tokyo), he produced large numbers of pictures of actors in the small hosoban size, around 33 centimeters long by 15 wide. The woodblock printing of the day did not allow artists to follow their own creative paths. Instead, publishers came up with themes that were likely to be a hit, and artists, carvers, and printers worked together to turn these ideas into multicolored prints known as nishiki-e, which were sold in great quantities with tight profit margins.

Pictures of actors sold for around a month while a particular play was showing, so making them small was a way of keeping down the costs of labor and materials. As these were also low-risk products suited perfectly to novice artists, this is where Utamaro got his start.

This print of actor Ichikawa Yaozō as Gorō Tokimune was produced around 1776–77. (Courtesy Harvard Art Museums)

Getting His Break

Utamaro had the good fortune to be talent-spotted by the leading publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō (1750–97), who was born and raised in Yoshiwara, the Edo pleasure quarters licensed by the Tokugawa shogunate. Tsutaya had a rare eye for beauty, having honed the aesthetic sense he initially developed in Yoshiwara into a high level of discernment.

He gave Utamaro his first major job, illustrating the 1781 volume A Brief History of the Exploits of a Great Dandy. This was a yellow-backed kibyōshi, a kind of book that included many illustrations and was aimed at the popular market.

The 1781 Minari daitsūjin ryakuengi (A Brief History of the Exploits of a Great Dandy), written by Shimizu Enjū with illustrations by Utamaro. (Courtesy Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library)

Tsutaya recognized Utamaro’s talent from this job and assigned him in 1783 to series covering Yoshiwara events and festivals, this time producing larger ōban pictures of around 38 centimeters long by 28 wide. One of these celebrations was the Niwaka Festival, held through the eighth month of the former lunar calendar, in which geisha paraded through the streets and performed elaborate pieces. Before Utamaro, pictures of the festival were generally handled by the well-established publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi, who made a kind of program combining illustrations with written information about the geisha and performances.

Utamaro’s pictures varied greatly from Nishimuraya’s in that rather than focusing on the performances themselves he depicted what was happening behind the scenes. For example, in his Lion Dance: Oito of the Tamaya from the Female Geisha Section of the Yoshiwara Niwaka Festival series, geisha in resplendent costumes are taking a break in a Yoshiwara tea house, watched with interest by their young attendants. Bijinga tended to emphasize formality, so this kind of casual scene was rare. The intricate carving also catches the eye, and the work serves to commemorate how Tsutaya brought out the superb talent of Utamaro, who was still a newcomer to the scene. In the ninth month of the year, Tsutaya relocated to Nihonbashi, which was the center of woodblock printing in Edo.

Seirō niwaka onna geisha no bu: Shishi Tamaya Oito (Female Geisha Section of the Yoshiwara Niwaka Festival: Lion Dance: Oito of the Tamaya), 1783. (Courtesy Tokyo National Museum/Colbase)

Tsutaya had connections with writers of humorous kyōka poems, leading to new opportunities for Utamaro to shine. Beginning with the Picture Book of Selected Insects in 1788, Tsutaya published seven kyōka books with gorgeous illustrations. Using the best printing techniques of the time, they required pictures with the high degree of skill of the versatile Utamaro.

Ehon mushi erami (Picture Book of Selected Insects) with kyōka selected by Ishikawa Masamochi and illustrations by Utamaro, 1788. (Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Beauties of the Age

In 1791, the Kansei reforms, taking their name from the Kansei era (1789–1801), cracked down on the publishing industry. Three works by the author Santō Kyōden (1761–1816) were found to be improper, and he was made to wear manacles for 50 days, while Tsutaya had half of his assets confiscated. In an attempt to recover from this setback, around 1792 or 1793 Tsutaya hired Utamaro again and published a new style of bijinga known as ōkubie, which zoomed in on the head. This had a precedent in the pictures of actors, but was a first in the world of ukiyo-e.

Utamaro picked out ordinary women to be the subjects of his ōkubie pictures. Only an artist of his talents had the sensitive expressiveness to convey what they were feeling to viewers through slight tilts of the head or minor gestures. With master works like The Fickle Type from Ten Types of Feminine Physiognomy and Obvious Love from Anthology of Poems: The Love Section, Utamaro demonstrated his true ability.

Fujin sōgaku juttai: Uwaki no sō (Ten Types of Feminine Physiognomy: The Fickle Type), around 1792–93. (Courtesy New York Public Library)

Kasen koi no bu: Arawaruru koi (Anthology of Poems: The Love Section: Obvious Love), around 1793–94. (Courtesy The Art Institute of Chicago)

Published around this time were Utamaro’s pictures of three young beauties. These real-life women, reputed as the most beautiful of the age, appeared in a variety of fictitious settings, winning Utamaro overwhelming popularity among the Edo masses.

Tōji san bijin (Three Beauties of the Present Day), around 1792–93. (Courtesy New York Public Library)

Targeted by Reforms

As the Kansei reforms continued, however, the shogunate deemed it objectionable to create artworks depicting ordinary women, who were not in the sex or entertainment industries, and in 1793, it was forbidden to include their names in nishiki-e prints. Tsutaya, who had to maintain a publishing house in the prime location of Nihonbashi and had undergone shogunate punishment before, likely saw the crackdown as impossible to resist, and complied with conditions, including with the removal of names.

However, women in the shogunate-licensed pleasure quarters of Yoshiwara were not off-limits. Tsutaya and Utamaro turned their attention to aspects of life for Yoshiwara women that were hidden to ordinary customers in a new series, A Day in the Pleasure Quarters.

Seirō jūni toki tsuzuki: Uma no koku (A Day in the Pleasure Quarters: The Hour of the Horse), around 1794. (Courtesy The Art Institute of Chicago)

From 1794, however, when Tsutaya tapped Tōshūsai Sharaku to create pictures of actors as a new focus of his business, Utamaro kept some distance from the publisher in his activities. Tsutaya may have felt he was reaching the limits of what he could do with bijinga during the Kansei reforms. Now a star painter in his own right, Utamaro took on work with a range of publishers. In a reaction against the prohibitions, from around 1795 to 1796 he produced a number of hanjie (pictorial puzzles) including the names of famous women concealed in riddle form. These were immediately banned.

Kōmei bijin rokkasen: Takashima Hisa (Six Renowned Beauties: Takashima Hisa), around 1795–96. In the top right of the picture is a rebus revealing the name of the woman (see detailed view to right). A hawk (taka), island (shima), fire (hi), and half a heron (the sa of sagi) combine to spell out Takashima Hisa. (Courtesy The Art Institute of Chicago)

In 1800, Utamaro’s signature ōkubie style was banned, and in 1804 he was sentenced to 50 days in manacles for his nishiki-e in an illustrated biography of the sixteenth-century leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Everyday Art

Utamaro also often took everyday life as his theme.

Taiboku no shita no amayadori (Sheltering from the Rain Under a Tree), around 1799–1800. (Courtesy Tokyo National Museum/Colbase)

At the end of the eighteenth and the start of the nineteenth century, he produced many excellent pictures displaying mothers’ love for their children. Utamaro likely chose the topic as inoffensive to the shogunate, but the great demand to purchase such works opened up a new aspect of ukiyo-e. Satisfied with their city Edo and their lives there, the native-born Edokko saw the healthy growth of their children as a source of pride, leading to their great affection for Utamaro’s new works.

Nozoki (Peeping), around 1799–1800. (Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Outside Approval

To escape the increasing pressures on the publishing industry, in his later years Utamaro created a number of hand-painted works for individual supporters. While these artworks for his patrons were long appreciated, his nishiki-e were seen as ephemeral, and once their time was past, nobody wanted to buy them. Many of Utamaro’s pictures suffered the fate of other woodblock prints, and were boiled up to recycle the paper.

In the early Meiji era (1868–1912), Yoshida Kinbei, who later became a dealer in ukiyo-e, was selling some nishiki-e, which he had collected out of interest, at his night stall. He found a British customer willing to pay large sums of money for Utamaro’s work over around two years. This keen Utamaro fan was Francis Brinkley (1841–1912), who took the first step in spreading appreciation for the artist, then largely forgotten in Japan, around the world. Brinkley’s collection is now owned by the New York Public Library.

(Originally published in Japanese on April 7, 2025. Banner image: Detail from Kōmei bijin mitate chūshingura: jūichi danme [The Chūshingura Drama Parodied by Famous Beauties: Act Eleven]. Courtesy Tokyo National Museum/Colbase.)