Kitagawa Utamaro (1753?–1806)

Although Yamauba is the mythological devil woman, in his art Utamaro always transformed her into a beautiful women who plays with her young son, the strong boy Kintaro. Up to fifty designs by Utamaro are known on this subject, implying that there was sufficient public demand to support so many works.1

1. See Asano Shugo and Timothy Clark, The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro, (London and Tokyo, 1995), text to cat. 386