Ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") is the dominant tradition of Japanese woodblock printing, flourishing from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. Originating in Edo (modern Tokyo), ukiyo-e artists depicted the pleasures and pastimes of the urban merchant class: kabuki actors, courtesans of the Yoshiwara, landscapes, flora and fauna, historical tales, and erotica. The collaborative production system — designer, carver, printer, and publisher — enabled mass production of affordable prints that became one of Japan's most significant artistic exports. In the late nineteenth century, ukiyo-e prints profoundly influenced European Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Art Nouveau.

Notable Ukiyo-e artists include Kitagawa Utamaro, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

Ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") is the dominant tradition of Japanese woodblock printing, flourishing from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. Originating in Edo (modern Tokyo), ukiyo-e artists depicted the pleasures and pastimes of the urban merchant class: kabuki actors, courtesans of the Yoshiwara, landscapes, flora and fauna, historical tales, and erotica. The collaborative production system — designer, carver, printer, and publisher — enabled mass production of affordable prints that became one of Japan's most significant artistic exports. In the late nineteenth century, ukiyo-e prints profoundly influenced European Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Art Nouveau.