ukiyoe

Ukiyo-e, meaning the pictures of the floating world, is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings that flourished in Japan from the 17th through the 19th century, primarily in Edo. The term refers to the urban culture of the time, centered on pleasure districts, theater, and fashionable items, and it was produced for a broad popular audience.

The technique combined carved woodblocks and water-based pigments. Printing often used multiple blocks for different colors (nishiki-e); a single image could require several blocks, stable outlines, and a registration system. Paper was typically washi; colors were prepared from minerals and shell pigments. The artist designed the image, the carver cut the blocks, and printers coordinated ink application. Print editions varied in number; most circulated widely.

Subjects included bijin-ga (beautiful women), yakusha-e (actors), meisho-e (famous places), and landscapes; later artists broadened to genre scenes and fiction, as well as political caricature in some periods. Notable masters include Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Kunisada, Sharaku, and Harunobu, among others. Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji and Hiroshige's Fifty-Three Stations are among the best-known series; Harunobu pioneered full-color prints in the 1760s; the late 19th century saw Western-influenced revivals and reinterpretations.

Ukiyo-e declined with modernization in the Meiji era but influenced Western art and enthusiasts; it helped inspire Japonisme in Europe and laid groundwork for modern manga aesthetics through later print traditions and artists.