Kitagawa Utamaro, the Master of Ukiyo-e and his Pioneering Portraits of Edo

The text below is the excerpt from the book Utamaro (ISBN: 9781783107032), written by Edmond de Goncourt, published by Parkstone International.

He first studied painting at the school of Kanō. Then, while still quite young, he became the pupil of Toriyama Sekien. Sekien taught him the art of printing and of Ukiyo-e painting. In his early years, Utamaro published prints under the name of Utagawa Toyoaki. It was his prints of beautiful women (bijin-e) and of erotic subjects which would make him famous. The masters Sekien and Shunshō passed on to Utamaro the secrets learned from the great Kiyonaga and from the amiable and ingenious Harunobu (1752-1770). He became a sort of aristocrat of painting, not deigning to paint people of the theatre or even men. At the time, painters’ popularity depended on the popularity of their subject.

And, in a country where all strata of the population adored theatre players, it was common for a painter to take advantage of their fame by integrating them into his work. Utamaro refused to draw actors, saying proudly: “I don’t want to be beholding to actors for my fame, I wish to found a school which owes nothing except to the talent of the painter.” When the actor Ichikawa Yaozō had an enormous success in the play of Ohan and Choyemon and his portrait, done by Utagawa Toyokuni (1769- 1825), became famous, Utamaro, did indeed show the play, but represented it by elegant women, playing in imaginary scenes.

It was his way of demonstrating that the artists of the popular school, who had replicated the subject in the manner of Toyokuni, were a troop swarming out of their studios, a troop which he compared to “ants coming out of rotten wood”. Women were his only interest, filling his art, and soon he became the wonderful artist we know. Amongst those who played an influential role for Utamaro at the time, Tsutaya Jūzaburo (1750-1797) published his first illustrated albums. Ju – zaburo was surrounded by writers, painters and intellectuals, who gathered to practise kyōka poetry, which had more liberal themes and more flexible rules than traditional poetry, and which was meant to be humorous. These collections of kyōka were lavishly illustrated by Utamaro. His collaboration with Tsutaya Jūzaburō, whose principal artist he soon became, marked the beginning of Utamaro’s fame.

Around 1791, he left book illustration to concentrate entirely on women’s portraits. He chose his models in the pleasure districts of Edo, where he is reputed to have had many adventures with his muses. By day, he devoted himself to his art and by night, he succumbed to the fatal charm of this brilliant “underworld”, until the time when, seduced by the “tiny steps and hand gestures”, his art undermined by excess, he “lost his life, his name and his reputation”.

But, make no mistake, the Yoshiwara has nothing in common with western houses of prostitution. It was, in the eighteenth century especially, a garden of delights. In it one paid an elaborate court to prostitutes of great charm, versed in letters and in the rituals of the most exquisite etiquette. Eros assuming the figure of love. Utamaro had no trouble gathering all the elements of his work in “the green houses”, of which he was the recognised painter. For many connoisseurs of Japanese prints, Utamaro is the undisputed master of the representation of women, whom he idealises and whom he depicts as tall and slim, with a long necks and delicate shoulders, a far cry from the real appearance of the women of the time.

In terms of style it was around 1790 that Utamaro took his place as the leader of Ukiyo-e. This style captivated the Japanese public from the very beginning. Its spread was the product of the time of Edo, that is to say, a great renaissance of middle-class inspiration, which flourished in the midst of a civilisation brilliantly developed by the aristocracy, the military, and the clergy. However, in the early years of the nineteenth century, Utamaro’s talent and his incessant production began to lose originality. The artist grew old along with the man. He who had been so opposed to the representation of theatrical themes, goaded by the success of Toyokuni, who was beginning to become his rival, began to deal with subjects taken from plays, and he produced several mitiyuki. In these compositions, as well as in others, the elongated women, those slender creatures of his early period, put on weight and become rounder and thicker. The feminine silhouettes became heavy, yet still without the fatness found in Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815).

Against the women, who had filled his first works alone, he juxtaposed male figures who were comical, grotesque caricatures. The artist no longer wished to please through that ideal gentility with which he had adorned his women. He forced himself, by the presence of these “ugly men”, to flatter the public of the time, whose taste was compared by Hayashi Tadamasa to the taste of certain collectors of modern ivories from Yokohama who, as he says, “prefer grimace to art”, more interested in the drollness rather than the true beauty of the image.

---

Word	Explanation
Ukiyo-e	literally pictures of the floating world (from Uki: that which floats above, swims above; yo: world, life, contemporary time; and e: picture, print).
Kyōka	light poetry, humorous and satirical, free-form and rhymeless. Kyōka were often associated with a print.
Yoshiwara	red-light district of Edo, established around 1600 by order of the shogun.
Mitiyuki	a pair of lovers.

---

To get a better insight into Utamaro, continue this exciting adventure by clicking on:

Ebook: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Australia, Amazon French, Amazon German, Amazon Mexico, Amazon Italy, Amazon Spain, Amazon Canada, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Netherlands, Parkstone International, Ebook Gallery, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google, Apple, Overdrive, 
Everand, Bookbeat, 24symbols, Ellibs, Ebooks.com, RedShelf, Bookmate, ProQuest, YouScribe, Goodreads, Hoopla

Hardcover: The Great British Book Shop