Kitagawa Utamaro (1753?-1806)

Utamaro stayed with the great publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo and made illustrations for kibyoshi and sharebon books. Influenced by Kitao Shigemasa and Torii Kiyonaga, he began to draw full-length portraits in the Tenmei era (1781-89).
Later on, during 1790-91, Utamaro established his own style depicting three-quarter portraits of the beauties.His work became very popular because of his vivid new way of reproducing beauties, and his reputation as a master artist was established.