Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) Japanese, Bijinga Woodblock Print. In bamboo-lined frame with framing label on back. Kanji on top and middle right side. Informative label on the back indicates the artist, the title (Festival Trio), and the date it was made (mid-1790s), as well as an explanation of its place in the James A. Michener Collection of Japanese Prints in the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii. 

Overall Size: 16 x 12 in. 

Sight Size: 10 1/2 x 7 in. 

#4677 . 

Kitagawa Utamaro was born some time in 1753 in Japan. Although one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e (“floating world”) woodblock prints and paintings, particularly of beautiful women with exaggerated and elongated features, little is known of his actual life, and much that is known is contradictory and difficult to confirm. He was born Kitagawa Ichitaro, and at times used the names Yusuke and Yuki. He studied under Toriyama Sekien (1712-1788), first naming himself Toyoaki before settling on his most common moniker. Utamaro apparently married, although nothing is known about his wife and there is no record of them having had children. There are, however, many prints of tender and intimate domestic scenes featuring the same woman and child over several years of the child’s growth among his works. He is known to have made several important improvements in woodblock printing techniques, and invented at least three himself: “Jitsubushi,” which makes the background of a piece hazy, “Unmozuri,” which creates a sheen by rubbing the background with mica, and “Odoshoku tsubushi,” which involves rubbing the background with ochre for a gradient effect. His art began to appear in the 1770s, and he rose to prominence in the early 1790s, producing over 2000 known prints. One of the few ukiyo-e artists to achieve fame throughout Japan in his own lifetime, it was his arrest in 1804 for making illegal prints depicting the 16th Century military ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi that made him infamous, and likely contributed to his death two years later in October 1806. By the mid-19th Century his work had even reached Europe, where it garnered particular acclaim in France, heavily influencing the Impressionists with his use of partial views and his emphasis on light and shade.