Ukiyo-e

View of Mount Fuji, part of the Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō series by Hiroshige, published 1850

Ukiyo-e (浮世絵), "pictures of the floating world", is a genre of Japanese paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, that showed landscapes, the theatre and scenes of every day entertainment. They were made using woodblock prints.

Ukiyo-e were cheap because they could be mass-produced. They were meant for mainly townsmen, who were generally not rich enough to pay an original painting. The original subject of ukiyo-e was city life, in particular activities and scenes from the entertainment district. Beautiful courtesans, big Sumo wrestlers and popular actors would be portrayed while doing interesting activities. Later on landscapes also became popular. To this day, Ukiyo-e is still very popular across the world.

Other websites

• A Guide to the Ukiyo-e Sites of the Internet
• Ukiyo-e in "History of Art"
• History of Ukiyoe
• Kuniyoshi Project
• Gallery with a lot of info
• Overviews of the Printmaking Process detailed description of the stages of printmaking with many illustrations
• Viewing Japanese Prints