Utamaro began his career as a student of the traditional Kano school ink painter Toriyama Sekien (1712-1788). He signed his earliest known work with the go (art name) Sekiyo in 1770, and beginning in 1775, he designed a few actor prints using the go Kitagawa Toyoaki. In 1781 he began using the name Utamaro— making it official when he declared the name change at a banquet in 1782. Initially Utamaro designed actor prints in a style similar to the Katsukawa school, but during the 1780s he turned his attention to images of beautiful women showing influence from Kitao Masanobu (1761-1816) and Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815). In 1783 Utamaro moved in to live with the great publisher Tsutaya Juzaburo (1750-1797), who became Utamaro's principal collaborator until the publisher's death in 1797. Utamaro's style continued to evolve and by the 1790s he had become the leading artist of beautiful women and the floating world. In about 1792-1793, Tsutaya began publishing print series by Utamaro depicting half-length portraits of beauties with glittering full-mica backgrounds. These lavish images elevated print production to new heights, establishing Utamaro as the pre-eminent artist at the zenith of the golden age of ukiyo-e.