Ukiyo-e

The "floating world" (ukiyo) meant the pleasure quarters of Edo, today's Tokyo. These were the theatres, teahouses and entertainment districts where the rising merchant class spent its money and free time. Ukiyo-e captured the stars and scenes of this world. There were glamorous kabuki actors in dramatic poses, famous courtesans and beauties (bijin-ga), sumo wrestlers and ghost stories. Later came famous landscapes, as more and more people began to travel. The word has a gentle double meaning. In Buddhism, ukiyo meant the sad world of things that pass. Edo playfully turned it into the passing world of pleasure: enjoy it while it lasts.

A woodblock print was a team effort, not the work of one artist. The artist drew the design. A carver cut it into blocks of cherry wood, one for each colour. A printer inked the blocks and pressed paper onto them by hand. The picture grew colour by colour. A publisher paid for the work and sold the prints. People called the full-colour prints nishiki-e (錦絵), "brocade pictures." The great masters are world-famous. Hokusai made The Great Wave and the views of Mount Fuji, which are among the most copied images on earth. Hiroshige made calm landscapes of the road and the seasons that defined the genre. In the 19th century these prints reached Europe. Their flat colours, bold outlines and daring layouts amazed artists like Monet and Van Gogh. They sparked a craze for Japanese art that French critics named Japonisme.