Ukiyo-e
-- Ukiyo-e literally means "pictures of the floating world"
-- Ukiyo-e is probably the best known school of art in the West.
-- Ukiyo-e is closely connected to pleasures
-- Many prints were originally posters, advertising theater performances and brothels, or idol portraits of popular actors and beautiful teahouse girls.
-- The first woodblock prints were done in monochrome ink and were considered finished works without the addition of any color.
-- In 1764, Harunobu produced the fist polychrome print.
-- Polychrome printing became possible because woodblocks were carved in such a way as to be used in a carefully planned sequence, touching the paper at separated points.
HISHIKAWA MORONOBU -- called "the founder of ukiyo-e"
-- He was originally an illustrator, and there remain 60 books with his signed illustrations.
-- He was successful in popularizing some of his originally one-of-a-kind paintings by making near-copies as woodblock prints.
-- Moronobu's importance lies in his effective consolidation of the styles of early genre painting and illustration
TORII KIYONOBU(1664-1729) -- considered the originator of yakusha-e (actor portraits)
-- He used techniques similar to those uased for signboards, as if he were trying to make his subjects easily seen from a distance.
-- Kiyonobu is considered the "founder" of the Torii school of painters. The same Torii family has continued through the present day to work as "hereditary artists."
KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI(1760-1849) -- one of the most talented painters of the last years of the 264-year-long Edo period.
-- He was active in making bijinga(portraits of beautiful women)
Famous courtesans of th pleasure quarters were a great object of fascination for the urban population and paintings of these courtesans and other "beautiful women" became one of the main types of ukiyo- e.
-- Hokusai's most famous set of ukiyo-e series, "Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fiji" was an attempt to show Mt. Fuji from many different angles and in a variety of circumstances.
-- This series of woodblock prints has established his name on an international scale.
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