Edutainment > Utamaro Kitagawa - 1750-1806

Utamaro Kitagawa I

Harunobu Suzuki - Biography
Lovers in Spring
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Utamaro Kitagawa is highly appreciated as the dominating ukiyo-e artist of the late eighteenth century. Yet little is known about his life. Neither the precise date of Utamaro's birth, his birthplace, nor any substantial information about his parents are known.

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His Early Works

The original name of Utamaro is Ichitaro Kitagawa. It is generally agreed that he started his career as a pupil of the painter Toriyama Sekien. His early known works are actor portraits and theater programs, published under the name of Utagawa Toyoaki. In 1781/82 he changed his name to Kitagawa Utamaro. Around 1783 Utamaro started a successful cooperation with the publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo. Together they published several book illustrations. The early works of Utamaro were influenced by Torii Kiyonaga and Harunobu Suzuki.

Utamaro and Beautiful Women

Utamaro Kitagawa II

The World of Edo
Courtesan with Sake Cup
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Since 1791 Utamaro concentrated his work on single portraits of women. He took his models from the street or from the pleasure-district Yoshiwara. The stories of his love affairs with the ladies of the "licensed quarters" are said to be abundant.

Two years later, in 1793, Utamaro received wide-spread fame and recognition as a result of a new series of women prints.

When reading about this artist, you will often find phrases like "No other ukiyo-e artist has painted the beauty of women as deeply as he did". This has indeed a point. Utamaro's women express a certain sensitivity that no ukiyo-e artist had achieved before him. He had experimented with some new techniques to display the flesh tones of his women portraits in a different and softer manner.

But the artist certainly did not show women in their real natural physiognomy. His women are idealized with extremely tall and slender bodies. The heads are twice longer than broad. The noses are extremely long and the eyes and the mouth are depicted as tiny little slits. His women have long necks and small shoulders.

The typical physiognomy of a Japanese woman of the late eighteenth century was certainly far different from the designs of Utamaro. Indeed, his women look more like the models in today's fashion magazines. Is this the key for an explanation of the success of Utamaro prints?

The Arrest

Utamaro Kitagawa III

The Punishment of Utamaro
Beauty
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In 1804 Utamaro got into serious trouble with the authorities for violation of censorship laws. He had published a print with a historic scene showing the ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi with his wife and five concubines. This was considered as an offense against the ruling Shogunate of the Tokugawa family.

The artist was briefly imprisoned and to some sources sentenced to wearing hand-cuffs for 50 days. According to other sources, it was an iron collar he was forced to wear. Whatever the detailed circumstances may have been, this humiliation had a devastating impact on him. He fell into deep depressions and died two years later at the age of 53 in Edo. But in spite of his disease, Utamaro continued to produce prints until his death.

After his death, his pupil, Koikawa Shuncho, married Utamaro's widow, took his master's name and continued to produce beautiful women prints in the style of his master until 1820. And as he used the same signature as his master, he caused a bit of a mess for today's art experts and collectors. But that's the art business: apart from all esthetic values, painting and printmaking have always had a strong commercial aspect.

Utamaro Print Imports to Europe

Utamaro Kitagawa IV

Shunga
Lovers - Kabuki
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The total number of Utamaro prints is estimated at over 2,000 prints, plus a number of paintings, surimono prints and illustrated books - among them more than 30 shunga books (images with erotic scenes).

Japanese woodblock prints of the classical Edo period were imported to Europe in large numbers in the late nineteenth century. Commercial imports at that time were dominated by Dutch merchants. Before the opening of Japan to the West, Dutch sailors had dominated the smuggling business with Japan. The prints that came to Europe, were in large numbers ukiyo-e of Utamaro Kitagawa images - few originals, many reproductions, many Utamaro II and many fake copies. The main importing country was France - the French loved his elegant women portraits.

As a consequence of these late 19th century imports, France is today a major source for Utamaro prints - originals, reproductions and fakes.

Dieter Wanczura
(May 2001, updated April 2009)

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