The University of Kansas

Though ukiyo-e, or pictures of the "floating world," is best known as woodblock prints, the term also applies to some paintings and a wide variety of formats including albums, book illustrations, single-sheet prints, and greeting cards. The earliest significant prints date from around the mid-17th century; almost a century later the highly acclaimed color-printing method was devised and replaced hand coloring.

The production of a multicolored print involved the artist who created the composition, expert carvers who transferred the images to wooden block (a block being required for line work and for each of the various colors), and printers. A publisher supplied the capital and handled the marketing of the prints. The final product realized the expert input each provided.

The main subject of ukiyo-e was life surrounding the entertainment centers, and prominently featured were brothels and the kabuki theater. Famous beauties, actors in popular roles, life in the gay quarters, and men and women engaged in sex formed the major corpus of ukiyo-e. later historical events, heroes both actual and fictional, and eventually landscape also took their places as popular themes. Among the most endearing and widely known images in the woodblock print medium are the wonderful landscape scenes that were brought to perfection by the artists Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). These landscape capture the charm and beauty of the countryside and cityscapes of old Japan.