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Ukiyo-e

Also Known As Pictures of the Floating World
Regional and Non-Western Traditions

Ukiyo-e, meaning pictures of the floating world, is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings depicting landscapes, kabuki theater and the entertainment districts of Japanese cities. The prints were mass-produced and priced for the urban middle class rather than commissioned by aristocratic patrons. Hishikawa Moronobu is credited as the genre's originator in the 1670s, and later masters such as Katsushika Hokusai carried the form through the Edo period and into a twentieth-century revival.

Facts
Start Year
1670 1
Hishikawa Moronobu is credited as the genre's originator in the 1670s (New World Encyclopedia).
End Year
1867 1
Marks the close of the Edo period; the genre continued into a twentieth-century revival through the shin hanga and sosaku hanga movements (New World Encyclopedia).
Founded In Place
Japan 1
Key Principle
Mass-produced woodblock prints depicting landscapes, kabuki theater and the entertainment districts of Edo-period Japanese cities, made for an urban middle-class audience rather than aristocratic patrons. 1
Ukiyo-e
Filter Results3 entries
Connections

Expressed In

Printmaking, Art Forms
Source Ukiyo-e (New World Encyclopedia)

Influenced

Claude Monet, Artists
Source Ukiyo-e (New World Encyclopedia)
Cubism, Movements
Source Ukiyo-e (New World Encyclopedia)
Edgar Degas, Artists
Source Ukiyo-e (New World Encyclopedia)
Source Ukiyo-e (New World Encyclopedia)
Source Ukiyo-e (New World Encyclopedia)

Movement Members

Hokusai, Artists
Source Ukiyo-e (New World Encyclopedia)

Master of the Ukiyo-e print tradition.

Master of the Ukiyo-e print tradition.

Source Ukiyo-e (New World Encyclopedia)
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Wikipedia)

Master of the Ukiyo-e print tradition.

In the Other Atlases

Originated In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Sources
1. Ukiyo-e (New World Encyclopedia)
New World Encyclopedia
  • Lead section
    Ukiyo-e could be mass-produced and were intended for the urban middle class, who were generally not wealthy enough to afford an original painting.
  • Audience section
    Ukiyo-e could be mass-produced and were intended for the urban middle class, who were generally not wealthy enough to afford an original painting.
  • Article text
    Ukiyo-e is thought to have originated with the polychromatic paintings of Hishikawa Moronobu , in the 1670s.
  • lead section
  • Movement Members: Hokusai, Key artists section
    Katsushika Hokusai
  • Movement Members: The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Hokusai section
    The scene is of a great wave about to devour men and boats, with the distant Mount Fuji minimized by the size of the wave.
View the Source
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Wikipedia)
Movement Members: Thirty-six Views of Mount FujiView the Source

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