Ukiyo-e

Hishikawa Moronobu (Japanese, approx. 1618-1694) - Young Couple - Woodblock Print (click photo for larger image)Ukiyo-e was a popular form of printed art in Japan during the Edo period, inexpensive and usually depicting scenes from everyday life. Ukiyo translates as "the floating world" - an ironic wordplay on the Buddhist name for the earthly plane, "the sorrowful world". Ukiyo was the name given to the lifestyle in Japan's urban centers of this period - the fashions, the entertainments, and the pleasures of the flesh. Ukiyo-e is the art documenting this era. Ukiyo-e is especially known for its exceptional woodblock prints. After Japan opened trade with the West after 1867, these prints became very well-known and influential in Europea, especially in France. Japonisme influenced such artists as Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Van Gogh, and Whistler, among others. The founder of the Ukiyo-e school was the 17th-century artist Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694).