Japan's Ukiyo-e & Woodblock Prints

About this book

Tell a first impression from a restrike, a Hokusai wave from a Hiroshige rain. Ukiyo-e — the pictures of the floating world — are the most democratic great art ever made: masterpieces sold for the price of a bowl of noodles, drawn, carved, printed and published by four trades working as one hand. Yet English publishing offers only exhibition catalogues, single-artist monographs and survey chapters. This complete guide presents 200 artists, prints, series, genres, techniques and collecting subjects in one uniform, comparable format: each entry's story, the craft of its blocks, pigments and paper, its design, line and character, and how it is viewed, collected and cared for. Meet Moronobu, Harunobu, Utamaro, Sharaku, Hokusai and Hiroshige beside the shin-hanga travellers, walk the canon from the Great Wave to the Moon series, learn the subject genres from bijin-ga to Yokohama-e, go behind the shop curtain to the carver's knives, the printer's baren and the censor's seal, and finish with the honest craft of collecting — condition, dating, seals, restrikes, storage and price. Includes a four-checks method for reading any print: key block line, colour and registration, seals and signatures, paper and condition. A text-only edition by design: famous designs are taught by description, so you learn to recognise them in front of the real sheet.

Written and created in Japan by Japanese author Aki Wakamatsu. Published by Takikawa TOKOTOKO Kids LLC, a Japanese publisher in Hokkaido, Japan. Authentic Japanese content, carefully made in Japan — not mass-produced.