The original name of Utamaro is Ichitaro Kitagawa. It is generally agreed that he started his career as a pupil of the painter Toriyama Sekien. His early known works are actor portraits and theater programs, published under the name of Utagawa Toyoaki. In 1781/82 he changed his name to Kitagawa Utamaro. Around 1783 Utamaro started a successful cooperation with the publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo. Together they published several book illustrations. The early works of Utamaro were influenced by Torii Kiyonaga and Harunobu.

Since 1791 Utamaro concentrated his work on single portraits of women. He took his models from the street or from the pleasure-district Yoshiwara. The stories of his love affairs with the ladies of the "licensed quarters" are said to be abundant. Two years later, in 1793, Utamaro received wide-spread fame and recognition as a result of a new series of women prints. When reading about this artist, you will often find phrases like "No other ukiyo-e artist has painted the beauty of women as deeply as he did". This has indeed a point. Utamaro's women express a certain sensitivity that no ukiyo-e artist had achieved before him. He had experimented with some new techniques to display the flesh tones of his women portraits in a different and softer manner. But the artist certainly did not show women in their real natural physiognomy. His women are idealized with extremely tall and slender bodies. The heads are twice longer than broad. The noses are extremely long and the eyes and the mouth are depicted as tiny little slits. His women have long necks and small shoulders.

In 1804 Utamaro got into serious trouble with the authorities for violation of censorship laws. He had published a print with a historic scene showing the ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi with his wife and five concubines. This was considered as an offense against the ruling Shogunate of the Tokugawa family. The artist was briefly imprisoned and to some sources sentenced to wearing hand-cuffs for 50 days. According to other sources, it was an iron collar he was forced to wear. Whatever the detailed circumstances may have been, this humiliation had a devastating impact on him. He fell into deep depressions and died two years later at the age of 53 in Edo. Nevertheless, Utamaro continued to produce prints until his death. After his death, his pupil, Koikawa Shuncho, married Utamaro's widow, took his master's name and continued to produce beautiful women prints in the style of his master until 1820. And as he used the same signature as his master, he caused a bit of a mess for today's art experts and collectors.