This catalogue accompanies an exhibition at Ikon Gallery (September - November 2010) which is a survey of woodblock prints by Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro (c.1753 - 1806) from the collection of the British Museum. The exhibition focuses on images of women, in particular the courtesans of Yoshiwara, the regulated brothel district in Edo (now Tokyo). Images of bijinga (beautiful people), Kabuki actors, landscapes and city life were typical of ukiyo-e, espousing a life lived only for the moment. They informed, amused and distracted their audience by depicting available pleasures. Ikon also shows a number of Utamaro's explicitly erotic works, called 'spring pictures' or shunga. Issued as albums of sheet prints and as illustrated books, they are unambiguous in their intention to titillate.