Ukiyo-e Art

 By Marius Evans

浮世絵 (Ukiyo-e) is a Japanese style of painting and woodblock printing which emerged in the 16th century and commonly depicted kabuki actors, women, sumo wrestlers, ceremonies, nature, scenes from history and folk tales. Ukiyo-e’s philosophy focuses primarily on the present, with many paintings covering timely topics and the social life of common people. The Ukiyo-e printing method was popularised during the Edo period and was originally used to turn traditional hand-scrolls into books, having then become prominent for use in mass-producing prints. These mass-produced prints were inexpensive and attainable to both the general public as well as people of higher social class, also being used in advertising by businesses. The distinctive Ukiyo-e art style came to influence many western artists such as Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh. The style is characterised by the bold thick lines that it produces.

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa is the most well known Ukiyo-e print and was a part of a series of landscape prints by Hokusai named “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji”.

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai

Red Fuji by Hokusai

Mannen Bridge by Hokusai

The Tale of Genji by Utagawa Kunisada

Sumo Spectators by Utagawa Kunisada

Kinryuzan Temple by Utagawa Hiroshige

To create such a woodblock print, Japanese artists draw an image onto a thin type of paper known as washi (和紙), this washi paper is also used in sliding doors and screens. The washi paper is then glued to a block of wood, with the drawing’s outline used by the artist to carve the image into the wood. With the image then carved into the wood, the artist applies ink to the relief, after which paper would be placed on top of it and a flat tool called a barren (馬連) would help to transfer the ink to the paper. This whole process would then be repeated to incorporate multiple colours. Ukiyo-e artists often made both prints and paintings. Ukiyo-e prints are generally not the product of one person, many people are involved including a hanmoto (a publisher), an eshi (the artist who draws the design), a horishi (an artist who carves the printing block) and a surishi (an artist who adds colours to the prints).

A video showing the Ukiyo-e woodblock printmaking process can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhbSt_EVb7I 

Ukiyo-e artwork is still made to this day, and I implore you to search for “Ukiyo-e art” on Google to find artists and art pieces that you like.