Japanese Art

Ukiyo-e: The Woodblock Prints of the Floating World

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A colourful ukiyo-e woodblock print showing figures and a landscape from Edo-period Japan

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Some of the most recognisable images ever made in Japan — a towering blue wave, an actor frozen mid-pose, Mount Fuji glimpsed beyond a village — are ukiyo-e: woodblock prints from the Edo period. For two centuries they were the popular art of Japan's cities, cheap and everywhere, before they crossed the ocean and helped change the course of Western art. To understand ukiyo-e is to understand both a lost world and how it was made.

Pictures of the floating world

The name says everything. Ukiyo-e means 'pictures (e) of the floating world (ukiyo).' The 'floating world' was Edo-period city life at its most pleasurable and fleeting — the theatres, the entertainment districts, the fashions, the famous beauties and actors, the travel and landscapes people longed to see. Ukiyo-e captured this transient world of pleasure and celebrity: kabuki stars, courtesans, sumo wrestlers, ghost stories, and, later, the great landscape series that made the genre immortal.

A collaboration, not a lone genius

Here is what surprises people most: a ukiyo-e print was not the work of one artist but of a team, more like publishing than painting. Four hands made every print:

The artist, who designed the image (Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro).
The carver, who cut the design into cherry-wood blocks — a separate block for each colour, demanding astonishing precision.
The printer, who inked the blocks and pressed the paper, layering colour by colour in perfect registration.
The publisher, who commissioned, financed and sold the whole enterprise.

Because prints were pulled in large numbers, ukiyo-e was affordable popular art — an image could cost about the price of a bowl of noodles. This was mass media, centuries before photography.

The masters and their masterpieces

The genre produced giants. Katsushika Hokusai created the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, including the world-famous Great Wave. Utagawa Hiroshige captured the poetry of travel in his views of the Tōkaidō road. Kitagawa Utamaro was the master of elegant portraits of women. Their landscapes and scenes are now among the most reproduced images on earth.

The art that changed Western art

When ukiyo-e prints reached Europe in the 19th century — sometimes, famously, as wrapping paper around exported goods — they caused a sensation. Their bold flat colour, daring compositions, unusual viewpoints and confident outlines electrified Western artists chafing against realism. Monet, Van Gogh, Degas and others collected and imitated them, and this wave of influence, called Japonisme, helped push European art toward Impressionism and the modern. A humble Japanese popular print helped remake the art of the West.

Appreciating ukiyo-e

Look at the line and the flat colour. The confident outlines and areas of unshaded colour are the print's signature, quite unlike Western shading.
Notice the composition. Bold croppings, off-centre framing and dramatic scale are part of ukiyo-e's genius.
Read it as a scene of its time. Each print is a window onto Edo life — its fashions, stars and pleasures.
See originals if you can. Museums worldwide hold ukiyo-e; the subtle colours and impressions reward seeing in person.

Ukiyo-e is a rare thing: a popular art, made for ordinary people and sold cheaply, that turned out to contain some of the most enduring images humanity has produced. The floating world it pictured is long gone — but through these prints, Edo's fleeting pleasures float on.

FAQ

What is ukiyo-e?

Ukiyo-e means 'pictures of the floating world' — woodblock prints from Edo-period Japan that captured the pleasures of city life: kabuki actors, courtesans, famous beauties, ghost stories and, later, landscapes. They were cheap, popular mass-produced art.

How were ukiyo-e prints made?

By a team, not a single artist: an artist designed the image, a carver cut a separate cherry-wood block for each colour, a printer layered the colours onto paper in precise registration, and a publisher financed and sold the prints. Large print runs made them affordable.

Who are the most famous ukiyo-e artists?

Katsushika Hokusai, creator of the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji including the Great Wave; Utagawa Hiroshige, famous for his travel landscapes; and Kitagawa Utamaro, master of elegant portraits of women.

How did ukiyo-e influence Western art?

When prints reached 19th-century Europe, their bold flat colour, daring compositions and unusual viewpoints stunned artists like Monet, Van Gogh and Degas. This influence, called Japonisme, helped push Western art toward Impressionism and the modern.

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