Ukiyo-e (浮世絵, a Japanese term meaning "pictures of the floating world") is a style of painting, but is more commonly associated with a type of woodcut printmaking that became popular in Japan in the 18th and 19th centuries. The art form arose in the metropolitan culture of Edo (Tokyo) during the second half of the 17th century, originating with the single color works of Moronobu Hishikawa.
Ukiyo-e prints were made using the following procedure:
The artist produced a master drawing in ink
Craftsmen glued this drawing, face-down to a block of wood, cutting away the areas where the paper was white, thus leaving the drawing, in reverse, as a relief print on the block, but destroying the drawing.
This block was inked and printed, making near-exact copies of the original drawing.
These prints were in turn glued, face-down, to blocks and those areas of the design which were to be printed in a particular color were left in relief. Each of these blocks prints at least one color in the final design.
The resulting set of woodblocks were inked in different colors and sequentially impressed onto paper. The final print bore the impressions of each of the blocks, some printed more than once to obtain just the right depth of color.
Ukiyo-e were a relatively cheap way of making many images. They were meant for mainly townsmen, who weren't rich enough to buy an original painting. The original subject of Ukiyo-e was city life, in particular activities and scenes from the entertainment district. Beautiful courtesans, bulky sumo wrestlers and popular actors would be portrayed while engaged in appealing activities. Later on landscapes also became popular. Political subjects, and individuals above the lowest strata of society (courtesans, wrestlers and actors) were not sanctioned in these prints and very rarely appeared. Sex was not a sanctioned subject either, but continually appeared in ukiyoe prints. Artists and publishers were sometimes punished for creating these sexually explicit shunga.
Sample Ukiyo-e are available on pages of individual artists.
External links
Overviews of the Printmaking Process (http://woodblock.com/encyclopedia/entries/000_09/000_09_frame.html) detailed description of the stages of printmaking with many illustrations
Viewing Japanese Prints (http://optometry.berkeley.edu/~fiorillo/)
The development of this art form occurred during the Edo period (1603-1867) which was a time of relative peace whereby the middle class and common man could afford to spend their spare time and resources on transient pleasures such as Kabuki theater and geisha entertainment in establishments such as the Ichiriki Ochaya.
Ukiyoe was an inspiration for cubism and it is widely known that it had a great influence on impressionists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Ukiyoe is a treasured art not only because of its depiction of life in the Edo period but also since its form is an enduring preserve of Japanese culture during that era.
Depending on what school an artist belonged to would largely determine the style of interpretation of the subject, whether or not fine or bold lines were used, what thematic qualities were considered appropriate for that school, what coloration would be aesthetically acceptable, and what the purpose of the piece would serve.
Ukiyoe, in their greatest popularity were to be found all over Europe during the turn of the last century.
But despite the lack of ukiyoe craft which is done today, art collectors and those who love the texture and feel of these pieces can still aquire prints from original blocks here in Japan.
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