Tsutaya Jūzaburō

Tsutaya Jūzaburō (Japanese: 蔦屋 重三郎; 13 February 1750 – 31 May 1797) was the founder and head of the Tsutaya publishing house in Edo, Japan, and produced illustrated books and ukiyo-e woodblock prints of many of the period's most famous artists. Tsutaya's is the best-remembered name of all ukiyo-e publishers. He is also known as Tsuta-Jū and Jūzaburō I.

Tsutaya set up his shop in 1774 and began by publishing guides to the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters. By 1776 he was publishing print series, and went on to publish some of the best-known artists of the late 1700s. He is best remembered for his association with Utamaro and as the sole publisher of Sharaku. "Tsutaya" is not a true surname, but a yagō "shop name" that translates as "Ivy Shop". The publisher used a seal of ivy leaves under a stylized Mount Fuji as a publisher's mark.

Jūzaburō's father is believed to have been a member of the Maruyama clan and a worker in the Yoshiwara, Edo's pleasure district. Born in the Yoshiwara, Jūzaburō was adopted into the Kitagawa family and given the name "Tsutaya" after the shop name of one of the Kitagawa's tea houses.

Tsutaya opened his publishing business in Shinyoshiwara Gojukkendō Higashigawa in Edo in 1774 and began publishing with a volume of illustrations of Yoshiwara beauties by Kitao Shigemasa called Hitome Senbon ("Thosuands at a Glance"); Tsutaya's other early publications were also guides to the pleasure quarters.

With the publisher Urokogataya, Tsutaya co-published the Yoshiwara Saiken ("Guide to Yoshiwara") from aroung 1774–75, and published it solo from 1776 to 1836 with illustrations by such artists as Katsukawa Shunshō. Also from 1776 Tsutaya began publishing books of haiku poetry, sharebon books, and ehon picture books, and with publisher Nishimura Yohachi, Tsutaya co-published his first print series in 1776: Koryūsai's Hinagata Wakana no Hatsumoyō ("Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh Young Leaves"). Tsutaya did not continue with the series, though, and Nishimura finished publishing it alone in 1781. In 1883, he began publishing kibyōshi by the famous writer Hōseidō Kisanji, marking the beginning of his popularity and success. He soon expanded into books of kyōka (comic waka poetry).

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