Ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") is an art form that highlights flowing curved outlines, simplistic forms and detailing of flat areas containing color. Originating in the metropolitan culture of Edo (Tokyo) in the early seventeenth century during a period of relative calm after 400 years of political unrest, the art, a collaboration between artist, carver, printer and publisher, was closely connected with the rise of an affluent merchant class and their "floating world" of transient and carefree urban pleasures. Printed on fragile paper using a technique of woodcut or woodblock printing, the early black and white designs soon gave way to delicate two-color prints and in the later eighteenth century to multicolored prints. Favorite subjects were portraits of beautiful geisha and courtesans, popular actors from the kabuki theater and sumo wrestlers. Many ukiyo-e were erotic works. Later artists depicted scenes from nature and landscapes, historical subjects and even foreigners in Japan. Leading exponents were Hiroshige, Utamaro, Hokusai and Harunobu. Ukiyo-e prints were to later influence many artists in Europe and the United States.

The charming, carefully selected ukiyo-e in this book reflect not only Japan's rich history and way of life but also reveal the author's love affair with an art form that has captured the imagination of people all over the world.