Born in the Yoshiwara district of Edo. His father was Maruyama Jūsuke and his mother Hirose Tsuyo. When he was small his parents separated, and he was adopted by the Kitagawa family (trading as Tsutaya), who ran a teahouse in the Yoshiwara. Growing up there would serve him greatly in his later work.
At 23 he opened a bookshop near the great gate of the Yoshiwara, renting space at the front of his brother-in-law's shop. At first he sold and lent books and dealt in the Yoshiwara saiken, the guidebooks to the quarter.
He published Hitome Senbon, a picture book by the artist Kitao Shigemasa that likened courtesans to flower arrangements. It was his first work as a publisher. From the next year he issued his own Yoshiwara saiken, earning praise for making them easier to read.
From around this time he brought out one kibyōshi and sharebon after another by Koikawa Harumachi, Hōseidō Kisanji, Santō Kyōden and others. He was close to Ōta Nanpo and other writers of satirical verse, and composed satirical verse himself under the name Tsuta no Karamaru.
He set up shop, the Kōshodō, in Tōriabura-chō in Nihonbashi, the heart of Edo publishing. Now among the top publishers, he became known as the man who created Edo's fashions.
He published Ehon Mushi Erami, a book of satirical verse illustrated by Kitagawa Utamaro, showing the world the delicacy of Utamaro's art. Later he issued one ōkubi-e after another, close-up portraits of beautiful women, and Utamaro became hugely popular.
Under Matsudaira Sadanobu's Kansei Reforms, publishing was strictly controlled, and he was punished for issuing sharebon by Santō Kyōden, losing half his property. Even so, "Tsutajū" was not daunted and kept dreaming up new projects.
Around this time he hired the young Kyokutei Bakin as a clerk, and later he is said to have let Jippensha Ikku live and work at his shop. He discovered and nurtured young men who would become Edo's leading writers.
He published at one stroke 28 ōkubi-e of kabuki actors by an unknown artist, Tōshūsai Sharaku. Their bold capture of the actors' features astonished the public, but Sharaku vanished after leaving some 140 works in about ten months.
He died of beriberi at 47. Having launched so many writers and artists, Tsutajū did much to make Edo's townspeople's culture flourish, and he is sometimes called the media king of Edo.
Matsudaira SadanobuSantō KyōdenJippensha IkkuKyokutei BakinKitagawa Utamaro
Hayashi ShiheiInō TadatakaHanawa HokiichiShiba KokanUesugi YōzanDaikokuya KōdayūKitagawa UtamaroMogami Tokunai
People of the Edo period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.