Ukiyo-e (pronounced “oo-kee-yo-ay”) is a style of colorful woodblock printing that flourished in Japan from the 1600s to the 1800s. The name means “pictures of the floating world,” referring to the vibrant everyday life of Japanese cities during that era.

Artists created ukiyo-e prints by carving images into wooden blocks, inking them, and pressing paper onto the blocks to transfer the image. Different blocks were used for different colors, so a single print might require a dozen carved blocks to complete. This process allowed artists to make many copies of the same image, making beautiful art affordable for ordinary people, not just the wealthy.

Ukiyo-e prints depicted scenes from daily life: actors performing in theaters, sumo wrestlers in action, beautiful landscapes, and people going about their business in bustling city streets. The most famous ukiyo-e print is probably “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by Hokusai, showing enormous waves threatening small boats with Mount Fuji in the background.

When these prints reached Europe and America in the late 1800s, Western artists were amazed by their bold designs, flat areas of color, and unusual perspectives. Artists like Vincent van Gogh collected and studied ukiyo-e, and you can see its influence in his work. Today, ukiyo-e prints hang in major museums worldwide and continue to inspire artists, designers, and illustrators.