Ukiyo-E [Hc]

Description

Ukiyo-e art is a wood engraving technique, representing the last traditional Japanese figurative art before the Meiji period (1868). Its 'pictures of the floating world' imitate ancient aristocratic traditions and reflect the tastes and traditions of the people of Edo (the present day Tokyo) through landscapes and scenes from everyday life. The Art of Ukiyo-e is a 'spiritual rendering of the realism and naturalness of daily life, intercourse with nature, and imaginings, of a lively impressionable race, in the full tide of a passionate craving for art.' This characterisation sums up forcibly the motive of the masters of Ukiyo-e, the Popular School of Japanese Art, so poetically interpreted as 'The Floating World'.

Woldemar von Seidlitz was a German art historian and a writer. His study of Japanese art is a reference in his field and compiles the works of the art historians before him. Dora Amsden is also an art historian specialised in the figure of the woman in the Japanese prints. Together, Amsden and Seidlitz visit the Impressions of Ukiyo-e from Genroku, the golden era of romance and art to the school of Torii, the printer's branch of Ukiyo-e.