Ukiyo-e artist of Edo. His birthplace is uncertain, though Edo is the likeliest. His family name was Kitagawa and his given name Nobuyoshi. He signed first as Kitagawa Toyoaki, and from the spring of 1781 used the name Utamaro; from 1783 he wrote the Kitagawa of his signature with different characters. He studied under Toriyama Sekien. Discovered by the publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo, he made his name with colour-printed kyoka books illustrated from life. In the Kansei era (1789–1801) he launched the okubi-e, the large head study, and took the age by storm. In these half-length beauties Utamaro showed an unequalled command of sensuous colour, of the substance of the female body, and of the fine folds of feeling that show in an expression or a gesture. He drew not only the celebrated courtesans of the pleasure quarters but women of every station: girls of good reputation working in tea houses and cracker shops, geisha of the lowest rank, daughters of samurai families. He had many pupils — Utamaro II, Fujimaro and Tsukimaro among them — but none to compare with him, and the line died out in the Bunsei era (1818–1830). His influence on later painters of beautiful women is beyond measure.