Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan. Usually the word ukiyo is literally translated as “floating world” in English, referring to a conception of an evanescent world, impermanent, fleeting beauty and a realm of entertainments (kabuki, courtesans, geisha) divorced from the responsibilities of the mundane, everyday world. (Read more at Wikipedia…)

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Featured Woodblock Print Masters

TOYOHARA CHIKANOBU [VIEW GALLERY]

Chikanobu (1838-1912) was a prolific artist during the Meiji era. A hero in war, he later went on to paint famous battle scenes and other historical events. He depicted a wide range of subjects, including Japanese folklore characters and kabuki actors. He also loved to paint women and became well-known for his chronicling of women’s fashions. (Read more at Wikipedia…)

UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE [VIEW GALLERY]

Hiroshige (1797-1858) was one of the last great Japanese ukiyo-e artists. In his early work, he concentrated on painting women and actors, but later, as he traveled around Japan, he produced several very popular series of landscape paintings. (Read more at Wikipedia…)

KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI [VIEW GALLERY]

Hokusai (1760-1849) was a ukiyo-e master who had a long career, but accomplished his most important work after age sixty. His most prominent series was Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which won him international acclaim, and was responsible for broadening the genre to include landscapes and other subject matter. (Read more at Wikipedia…)

TOYOHARA KUNICHIKA  [VIEW GALLERY]

Kunichika (1835 – 1900) was a woodblock print artist who became a student of Utagawa Kunisada at a young age. His love of kabuki led him to primarily focus his paintings on kabuki actors and scenes from the most popular plays of his time, although he also painted beautiful women (bijinga), scenes from social life, and a few landscapes and historical scenes. (Read more at Wikipedia…)

UTAGAWA KUNISADA  [VIEW GALLERY]

Kunisada (1786 – 1865) was the most popular and financially successful ukiyo-e artist in 19th-century Japan, but for a long time his work was considered inferior to those of his contemporaries by art scholars. That view began to change in the early 1990s, though, as scholars re-examined his work and he was awarded his rightful place among the giants of ukiyo-e artists. (Read more at Wikipedia…)

UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI  [VIEW GALLERY]

Kuniyoshi (1797 – 1862) was one of the last great ukiyo-e masters. His prints covered a range of subjects, from landscapes and beautiful women to Kabuki actors and cats. He is also well-known for his samurai battle scenes and portraits of legendary heroes. (Read more at Wikipedia…)

TSUKIOKA YOSHITOSHI [VIEW GALLERY]

Considered by many to be the greatest Japanese artist of his era, Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) is widely regarded as one of Ukiyo-e’s greatest innovators and perhaps its last great master. Although prolific in many different subject matter, it is his “Bloody Prints” series that many remember him for. (Read more at Wikipedia…)

Mount Fuji Series

HOKUSAI’S THIRTY-SIX VIEWS OF MOUNT FUJI [VIEW GALLERY]

Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is an ukiyo-e series of large, color woodblock prints by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). The series depicts Mount Fuji in differing seasons and weather conditions from a variety of different places and distances. It actually consists of 46 prints created between 1826 and 1833. The first 36 were included in the original publication and, due to their popularity, ten more were added after the original publication. (Read more at Wikipedia)

HIROSHIGE’S THIRTY-SIX VIEWS OF MOUNT FUJI [VIEW GALLERY]

Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is also the title of two series of woodblock prints by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Andō Hiroshige, depicting Mount Fuji in differing seasons and weather conditions from a variety of different places and distances. The 1852 series are in landscape orientation; the 1858 series are in portrait orientation. (Read more at Wikipedia)

Watch How Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints are Made