Ukiyo-e
The word Ukiyo-e translated means "Pictures of the floating world." Ukiyo-e is a Japanese style of art that are woodblock prints or paintings. The word Ukiyo itself is a term that describes the Edo lifestyle and culture. Many Edo citizens indulged in different entertainment such as kabuki theaters, geishas, and Orians. So printed images and paintings that describe this lifestyle was named Ukiyo-e. This style of art became popular in Japan during the 17th century through 19th century and was created for the wealthy merchant class during the Edo period. Many of the merchants who became wealthy enough to purchase these works used the images to decorate their homes. Many popular themes of Ukiyo-e include scenes from folktales and history, as well as landscapes, celebrities, and beautiful women. Ukiyo-e is a Japanese art style that was created and developed in the city of Edo (Now known as Tokyo) during the early 17th century. During this time, Japan was ruled by Tokugawa shoguns. Ukiyo-e originally started as a collaboration between the merchants, artists, publishers, and townspeople. Despite that originally, Ukiyo-e artwork were considered to be "low class" artwork created for the non-elite classes, the work itself needed a high level of visual and cultural literacy. As Ukiyo
Style
Early Ukiyo-e paintings and prints incorporated a strong Chinese influence due to the fact that many of the Japanese Ukiyo-e artists were trained with classical Chinese painting techniques. Later as Ukiyo-e grew and developed, these Japanese Ukiyo-e artists were able to stray away from the Chinese influence and develop a new Japanese expression and style. Ukiyo-e is made up of very defined, thick bold lines painted on top of a flat space. Although early Ukiyo-e paintings were only made in black and white, artists started to later incorporate small amounts of color into the Ukiyo-e paintings and prints.
Process
Ukiyo-e works were created by using either screen paintings or woodblock prints. The screen paintings were the first process that incorporate Ukiyo-e style. Many of the Ukiyo-e screen paintings that were created incorporate bright saturated colors and uses a larger variety of different techniques. Many of these screen paintings were painted on to silk, hanging scrolls and folding screens. Due to the fact that Ukiyo-e screen paintings take a large amount of time and effort, the woodblock process was introduced to the Ukiyo-e artists. Woodblock prints were an extremely significant part of Ukiyo-e artwork. The woodblock process involves the artist carving a picture into a block of wood then ink is applied to the woodblock and printed onto paper. By creating woodblock prints, Ukiyo-e artwork was able to be mass produced and accessible to everyone in Japan. The woodblock process revolutionized Ukiyo-e artwork because for the first time, artwork could be easily printed and created for the public of Japan.
Themes
Ukiyo-e has a variety of themes that are explored throughout the paintings and prints. Ukiyo-e was originally created to depict the entertainment lifestyle and culture of the Edo people. Many common themes that are used in Ukiyo-e paintings and prints include well known Japanese folktales, scenery of nature and cities, beautiful women, erotica, and kabuki actors. Portraits of celebrities from various Japanese entertainment such as sumo wrestling were also in high demand from the Japanese people. Many other Ukiyo-e pieces that were created also included other more mature themes such as sex, oversized body parts, bedroom scenes and voyeur scenes. These Ukiyo-e pieces are known as Shunga, which translates to erotic art in English. The majority of Ukiyo-e artists explored and created at least one Shunga piece within their career.