Pictures of the Floating World

Ukiyo-e full-colour prints used 10 or more woodblocks each.

Ukiyo-e is a Japanese art genre meaning pictures of the floating world.

Okumura Masanobu introduced geometrical perspective to ukiyo-e during the 1740s.

Suzuki Harunobu made full-colour brocade prints standard in the 1760s.

Artists designed images while separate carvers cut the wooden blocks. Teamwork.

Hand printing achieved colour gradations impractical with machines.

Utamaro created prized portraits of beauties in the late 18th century.

Hokusai created The Great Wave off Kanagawa during the 19th century.

Hiroshige created landscape prints in the 19th century.

Japonisme became a prominent trend from the 1870s onward.

Ukiyo-e strongly influenced early French Impressionists like Degas, Manet and Monet.

Sōsaku-hanga artists designed, carved, and printed their own works.