Utamaro Kitagawa (1753 - Tokyo 1806) Japanese painter and engraver belonging to the Ukiyo-e movement, which dominated Japanese art from the 17th to the 19th centuries. A disciple of Toriyama Sekien, he had a great influence on Japanese painters and on Western art, beginning with the Impressionists.
He often depicted the beauty of women and maternal love. He did not limit himself to depicting the nobility, but took scenes from everyday life, such as this woodcut triptych showing fisherwomen fishing for "awabi" (haliotis, abalones or sea-ears, shellfish renowned in cooking and for their beautiful mother-of-pearl shells), diving to catch them (left), nursing a child while combing her hair (centre) and drying and storing molluscs (right).