Editing Utamaro (section)

===Height of fame===

In about 1791 Utamaro gave up designing prints for books and concentrated on making single portraits of women displayed in half-length, rather than the prints of women in groups favoured by other ukiyo-e artists.

In 1793 he achieved recognition as an artist, and his semi-exclusive arrangement with the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō ended. Utamaro then went on to produce several series of well-known works, all featuring women of the [[Yoshiwara]] district.

Over the years, he also created a number of volumes of animal, insect, and nature studies and ''[[Shunga (art)|shunga]]'', or [[erotica]]. Shunga prints were quite acceptable in Japanese culture, not associated with a negative concept of pornography as found in western cultures, but considered rather as a natural aspect of human behavior and circulated among all levels of Japanese society.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hayakawa|first1=Monta|last2=Gerstle|first2=C. Andrew|date=2013|title=Who Were the Audiences for "Shunga?"|journal=Japan Review|volume=26|pages=17–36}}</ref>