Daily Life Prints (666)
Daily life scenes (fuzoku-ga) document the ordinary activities, occupations, and domestic routines of Japanese people across centuries. This genre transforms mundane subjects — cooking, farming, fishing, bathing, shopping, child-rearing — into compositions that reveal both the aesthetic sensibilities of their makers and the social realities of their era. The ukiyo-e tradition's depiction of daily life centered on the entertainment districts and merchant culture of Edo, with artists documenting the routines and pleasures of townspeople. Utamaro's domestic scenes of women at their toilette or caring for children showed intimate moments with unprecedented tenderness. Hokusai's "Manga" (1814-1878) sketched daily life across all social classes with encyclopedic range, from artisans at their workbenches to children at play. Shin-hanga and sosaku-hanga artists of the twentieth century brought new perspectives to daily life subjects. While shin-hanga tended toward idealized depictions of traditional activities — tea ceremony, ikebana, kimono dressing — sosaku-hanga artists engaged more directly with contemporary life, depicting factory workers, city commuters, and modern domestic settings. These prints serve as invaluable social documents, preserving customs, costumes, and environments that rapid modernization has transformed beyond recognition.
Artists Known for Daily Life
Fighting Bulls in Iyo
Woodblock print
Hide and seek
Woodblock print
Mitate No.91 - Go (Go)
2012
Gekko's Sketches in Iroha-alphabet order (Vol. 2, fasc. 3)
1898
Woodblock printed book, ink on paper
Collection of Humorous Leftovers (Kokkei zansai bukuro 滑稽残菜嚢), vol.
mid February 1882
Woodblock printed book, ink and color on paper
Tokyo Pleasures: Photographs
Woodblock print
Embroiderer of Chinese embroidery
Woodblock print
Monsters jumping out of a box scaring a man, draft for the print 'The Heavy Basket' (Omoi tsuzura)
around 1889
Preparatory drawing for a print, ink and color on paper
Kyosai rakuga
1881
Woodblock printed books, two volumes
A caricature of commodity prices, triptych, 1867
Woodblock print
print / drawing
Woodblock print
Battledore
1896
Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper
Annual Edo Customs: Tenth Month, Prosperous Merchants Worship the God of Wealth
Woodblock print
Women Drawing Strings for Prizes, right panel of a triptych
Woodblock print
One Hundred Pictures by Kyōsai (Kyōsai hyakuzu)
1878
Kyōsai Drunken Pictures (Vol. 1)
1882
Woodblock printed book, ink on paper
Album of Meiji Period Prints
19th century
Accordion-fold album of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper
Incense ceremony
Woodblock print
Ukai, cormerant fishing
Woodblock print
Figures from Ôtsu-e Paintings of the Floating World in a Drunken Stupor (Ukiyo-e Ôtsu no renchû suimin no zu)
Woodblock print
Mitate No.82 - Kite (Kuwa)
2007
Whispering
1958
Color woodblock print; edition 1/70
Man Warming Hands by Stove (Sutôbu no mae)
Woodblock print
Departure of a Family
Woodblock print
Tenderness (A)
Woodblock print
Returning from a Bath — 湯がへり
Woodblock print
Fishing (1)
Woodblock print
A Man With A Coffee Cup
Woodblock print
Party, Shôwa period, dated 1963
Woodblock print
Skater (Descriptive Title)
Woodblock print
Untitled (Fishing)
c.1950s
Color woodblock print
Firewood (Maki)
1960
Color woodblock print; Artist's proof (Epreuve d'artiste)
My Family
Woodblock print
Cartoon (Tooth Pulling)
Woodblock print
Go 2(B)
Woodblock print
Fishing Baskets
c. 1950-60s
Color woodblock print
Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)
Woodblock print
Nippon Jozokusen / Women's Customs in Japan
Woodblock print
Bulls Fighting
Woodblock print
Tozai kyoka mondo (The Comic Catechism)
Woodblock print
Knitting
Woodblock print
Carrying Water
1963?
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)
Woodblock print
Unknown - man eating
Woodblock print
Hospital or Barracks Scene
Woodblock print
After the Bath
Woodblock print
Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)
Woodblock print
Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)
Woodblock print
Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)
Woodblock print
Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)
Woodblock print
Women’s Activities of the Tokugawa Era
Woodblock print
After the Bath (Tokyo) / Nihon jozoku sen (Woman's Customs in Japan)
Woodblock print
Ningen o horu
Woodblock print
Picture of Negotiations with the Peace Envoy Li Hongzhang
March 1895?
Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper
Tenderness, Shôwa period, dated 1959
Woodblock print
Allegory No. 1: Famile
Woodblock print
Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)
Woodblock print
Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)
Woodblock print
Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)
Woodblock print
Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)
Woodblock print
Related Subjects
Frequently Asked Questions
Daily life scenes (fuzoku-ga) document the ordinary activities, occupations, and domestic routines of Japanese people across centuries. This genre transforms mundane subjects — cooking, farming, fishing, bathing, shopping, child-rearing — into compositions that reveal both the aesthetic sensibilities of their makers and the social realities of their era.
Miyagawa Shuntei, Hiyoshi Mamoru, and Kaoru Kawano are among the artists most associated with daily life in our collection. Browse the full list of artists who explored this subject above.
Hanga currently catalogues 666 prints tagged with daily life, spanning ukiyo-e, shin-hanga, and sōsaku-hanga traditions where applicable.