Serenade

1753/1754

Born

1775

Meeting the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō

By some accounts, in 1775 Utamaro meets the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō, who had an enormous influence on his work: many of his finest albums, illustrated books and series of single-sheet prints came out of their long collaboration. His first known work for Tsutaya, however, dates only from 1783.

c. 1791

Giving up book prints for half-length portraits of beauties

Around 1791 Utamaro gives up designing prints for books and concentrates on single portraits of women shown half-length, rather than the group scenes favoured by other ukiyo-e artists. He was the first in Japanese woodblock printing to use half-length compositions for women's portraits; none of his work from 1790–1792 has survived.

1797

The death of his friend and patron Tsutaya Jūzaburō

In 1797 Utamaro's long-time friend and supporter, the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō, dies; the artist is apparently very upset by the loss, and some commentators feel that his work never reached its former heights afterwards. He later lives in Kyūemon-chō, then Bakuro-chō, and finally near the Benkei Bridge.

1804

Arrest and fifty days in manacles

In 1804 Utamaro is imprisoned over prints of the sixteenth-century ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi, depicted, in the authorities' view, “in an improper form”, and then manacled for fifty days, together with Tsukimaro, Toyokuni, Shuntei, Shun'ei and Jippensha Ikku; their publishers are heavily fined. It is probably the most famous case of censorship of the Edo period, and Utamaro appears to have been the most prominent of those punished.

31 October 1806

Died