The word ukiyo originally meant “the sorrowful world.” During the Edo period, it came to describe the pleasure of living in the present.
Ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world,” depicted everything from beautiful women and kabuki actors to landscapes and everyday scenes.
It took two main forms: hand-painted works and woodblock prints. The former were costly commissions, while the latter were produced collaboratively by artists, carvers, and printers, making them widely affordable.
Ukiyo-e brought art into everyday life.
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Born into a samurai family and later bec...
Kunisada studied under Toyokuni I from a...
A pupil of Toyokuni I, skilled in perspe...
A pupil of Kunisada (Toyokuni III) and a...
Kuniyoshi studied under Toyokuni I and r...
Entered the studio of Utagawa Toyoharu a...
A pupil of Kuniyoshi active across genre...
Both an artist and a publisher who intro...
Trained under Shunei; known for beauties...
A pupil of Katsukawa Shunshō who admired...
Studied under Katsukawa Shunshō and crea...
Self-taught in painting and calligraphy ...
Studied under Toriyama Sekien, a pioneer...
Artist, writer and brothel-keeper, stron...
Orphaned and temple-raised, he became a ...
A high-ranking hatamoto (samurai) known ...
Active in beauty portraits and book illu...
Often called the “founder of ukiyo-e,” M...
A pupil of Hishikawa Moronobu who follow...
Hokusai’s pupil and adopted son, known f...
Multi-colour printing using several colo...
A secret name an artist used on shunga (...
Witty, incisive observation; in erotica ...
An erotic book, also called wa-jirushi o...
A composition showing the face and upper...
An explicit close-up of the female genit...
Text written into the margins—characters...
A set or series of images; ketsudai mean...
A “mechanical book” whose images open ou...
Shunga is a genre of Japanese art that f...
An erotic book; used interchangeably wit...
Sex toys and aphrodisiacs. Hokusai’s Man...
Slang for the female genitals....
The “large-head” beauty portrait; Utamar...
The woman-on-top form of mukudori; cited...
Prints that avoid red pigments in favour...
A colloquial term for the female genital...
Other names for shunga and erotic books;...
An archaic word for sexual union....
A popular Edo genre of “little-man stori...
A colloquial term for the male genitals....
Slang for the mutual oral position (“six...
The deity of conjugal harmony (originall...
Slang for erotic books (makura-zōshi); t...
Other names for shunga and erotic books—...
Gradation worked directly on the block f...
Ukiyo-e using Western linear perspective...
The word ukiyo originally meant “the sor...
Prints given a lacquer-like gloss....
Embossing that raises a pattern in the w...
Luxurious printing using gold and silver...
Monochrome woodblock prints produced usi...
Full multi-block colour woodblock printi...
Early hand-coloured prints using red-lea...
Hand-colouring applied to a monochrome p...
Pictures painted directly by brush rathe...
Multi-colored woodblock prints developed...
A tall, narrow format for pasting on pil...
Prints hand-coloured with safflower red ...
Prints hand-coloured with safflower red ...
An early multi-colour stage printed with...
An intermediate format between ōban and ...
A horizontal handscroll viewed by unroll...
A large print format....
A large book format....
A folding (concertina) album....
An album or accordion format mounting pi...
A small book....
A long narrow format, named for poem-sli...
A fragment cut from a scroll or album....
A medium print format....
The frontispiece picture opening a book....
A half-paper book format, common for ero...
A miniature format....
A landscape (wide) book format; the koba...
1772–1781....
1854–1860....
Roughly the late 18th–19th century....
Roughly the 17th century; here, works by...
Roughly the early-to-mid 18th century....
1848–1855....
1748–1751....
1789–1801; the Kansei Reforms brought su...
Reforms whose sumptuary laws cracked dow...
Shogunal reforms after which erotic book...
1801–1804....
1864–1865; Kunisada died in Genji 1 (186...
1688–1704; Moronobu died in Genroku 7 (1...
Laws restricting luxury, under which uki...
1711–1716....
1684–1688....
1681–1684....
1830–1844....
1781–1789....
1804–1818....
1861–1864....
1818–1830....
1751–1764....
1868–1912; Koikawa Shōzan died in Meiji ...
1764–1772....
A high-ranking Yoshiwara courtesan....
A house that retained courtesans and gei...
A lending library that toured customers’...
A mosquito net—shorthand in shunga for a...
A temporary brothel licensed to operate ...
A woman who entertained with music and d...
A writer of popular Edo fiction (gesaku)...
A simplified court robe (a lighter jūnih...
A purple priestly robe granted by the em...
An iridescent green-to-red sheen, charac...
Originally an infant; later a temple pag...
A teahouse; also a place to meet courtes...
A teahouse used for clandestine trysts....
An Edo box-pillow; often shown overturne...
A high-ranking samurai in direct service...
A small pouch for cosmetics, with tissue...
A summer reed mat, its checks signalling...
A publisher of prints and books (e.g., T...
An Edo pleasure district; the setting of...
Safflower rouge; built up in layers it g...
A Portuguese-derived confection (from bo...
A courtesan’s true lover, met off the cl...
A courtesan working in the quarters....
A stylish look with a comb worn sideways...
Prints depicting the newly opened port o...
Edo’s licensed pleasure quarter; when it...
A Ryōgoku shop specialising in sex toys ...
An Edo restaurant serving food, often wi...
A masterless samurai; Koryūsai was one b...
The mythical “Floating Bridge of Heaven”...
The creator deities of Japanese myth who...
The Muromachi–Edo painting school whose ...
Comic and satirical waka; Shigenobu also...
Picture-led popular booklets; illustrate...
Murasaki Shikibu’s classic, often refere...
Ihara Saikaku’s novel; Moronobu illustra...
Tamenaga Shunsui’s popular ninjōbon, dra...
The Chinese tale; Kuniyoshi’s prints of ...
Short colloquial verse on manners and fe...
Bakin’s epic novel; Yanagawa Shigenobu i...
Late-Edo popular fiction of love and fee...
Hokusai’s famous series of landscape pri...
Hokusai’s sketchbooks and drawing manual...
Moronobu’s masterpiece, familiar from te...
Noh chant texts; Shūgen Iro-naoshi took ...
Romantic, often fantastical long novels;...
An illustrated Edo encyclopedia; it reco...
Author of Life of an Amorous Man and oth...
An old Edo publishing house that issued ...
A leading Edo cultural figure and satiri...
Founder of the Katsukawa school; teacher...
A Heian courtier-poet; linked to the Ōsh...
A gesaku writer; his pupil Jūjitei Sanku...
A gesaku writer; author of Shunshoku Ume...
The celebrated Edo publisher who worked ...
The founding figure of yōkai illustratio...
A publisher who, with Tsutaya, issued Hi...
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