浮世絵ukiyo-e
Quick definition:Ukiyo-e is a style of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings from the Edo period, showing scenes such as actors, landscapes and daily life, and it has strongly influenced manga and anime art.
Meaning
Ukiyo-e means pictures of the floating world, and it refers to Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced mainly during the Edo period. The floating world was the lively urban culture of theatres, tea houses and entertainment districts, and the prints showed actors, famous places, seasonal scenes, folklore and everyday life. They were relatively inexpensive and widely collected.
Prints were made by teams, with an artist drawing the design, a carver cutting wooden blocks and a printer applying colour. This process allowed many copies and a bold, flat look, with strong outlines and clear colours. The prints became popular overseas in the nineteenth century and influenced many Western artists.
Ukiyo-e is often mentioned as one root of manga, because its figures, expressions and storytelling were widely used in illustrated books and sequences. Anime and manga artists still borrow its colours, waves, patterns and composition, and some series feature ukiyo-e artists and their works directly.
Origin:Ukiyo-e is formed from ukiyo, meaning floating world, and e, meaning picture. Ukiyo was an older Buddhist term for the fleeting nature of life, and in the Edo period it came to describe pleasure and fashion in the cities. The art form developed in the seventeenth century and flourished in the following centuries.
Example:A manga artist draws a heroic duel with sweeping lines and a flattened background in the style of a woodblock print, and a fantasy anime shows a great wave crashing in a pattern borrowed from a famous print. Such references show how older art still shapes modern designs, often without any explanation.
Did you know?Ukiyo-e prints are said to have been used as packing material for goods exported from Japan, which is one way Western artists came across them. Their influence on European art was strong enough to be given its own name, Japonisme. In Japan, the prints were sold cheaply and widely, much like posters today.
