Ukiyo-e

'Pictures of the floating world': Japanese woodblock prints and paintings from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, made for the townspeople of Edo (Tokyo). They showed the pleasures of the city: kabuki actors, courtesans and beauties (Utamaro), sumo wrestlers, and later landscapes and travel, as in Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji with The Great Wave, and Hiroshige's views of the Tōkaidō road. Prints were produced by teams of designer, carver and printer, cheaply and in large numbers. When they reached Europe in the 1860s, their flat colour, bold outlines and unusual viewpoints transformed Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.

How to tell it apart: flat areas of colour with strong outlines, no cast shadows, high or cropped viewpoints, Japanese inscriptions and seals.

517 works in the quiz. Play a round on Ukiyo-e.

Artists

Katsushika Hokusai · Hasui Kawase · Utagawa Kuniyoshi · Kitagawa Utamaro · Sharaku · Suzuki Harunobu · Kobayashi Kiyochika · Shoen Uemura · Hashimoto Gahō · Nishikawa Sukenobu

Best-known works

“The Great Wave off Kanagawa” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1830–1833
“The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1820
“Fine Wind, Clear Morning” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1830s
“Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre” — Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1844
“Three Beauties of the Present Day” — Kitagawa Utamaro, 1792–1793
“Lightnings below the summit” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Kajikazawa in Kai province” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Lake Suwa in Shinano province” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Under the Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Flames” — Shoen Uemura, 1918
“Sundai, Edo” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Dragon flying over Mount Fuji” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1849
“Sazai hall - Temple of Five Hundred Rakan” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Watermelon” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1839
“Fujimigahara in Owari Province” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Ejiri in Suruga province” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“The Fuji from the mountains of Totomi” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Great Daruma” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1817
“Fuji from Ushibori, Province of Hitachi” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Inume Pass in Kai Province” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Shichiri beach in Sagami province” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Fukagawa no Yuki” — Kitagawa Utamaro, 1800s
“Umezawa Manor in Sagami Province” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“A sketch of the Mitsui shop in Suruga street in Edo” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Cushion Pine at Aoyama” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Fuji from Gotenyama on the Tōkaidō at Shinagawa” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Morning after a Snowfall at Koishikawa” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Bay of Noboto” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Reflection in Lake at Misaka in Kai Province” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831
“Sunset across the Ryogoku bridge from the bank of the Sumida river at Onmaya-gashi” — Katsushika Hokusai, 1831