Floating world Ukiyo-e is a Japanese word. If you look at the Chinese characters - Japanese call these kanji - you will see why the word is often translated into English as 'pictures of the floating world'. The floating world means the world that is always changing. That was Edo, or now Tokyo. In old Japan, ukiyo was the world of geishas who worked in 'pleasure quarters'. But this style of woodblock print popular in the Edo period (1603-1868) included pictures of far more than geishas. Ukiyo-e artists created gorgeous pictures of sumo wrestlers, falling cherry blossoms, mountains and even tsunamis. Art for everybody Ukiyo-e were made with woodblocks. This meant that, once you had created the woodblock, you could make many prints. In the days before printing, this allowed artists to sell their work to lots of people. All the famous artists had assistants. The assistant would take the artist's painting and glue it to a piece of wood - usually cherry. Then the assistant would cut away everything that was white in the painting. If you put ink on the parts of the wood that stood up and pressed it against paper, you had a print. 36 views of Mount Fuji Katsushika Hokusai (1769-1849) was one of the most famous ukiyo-e artists who ever lived. People normally just call him Hokusai. It was the name he used for some of his most well-known prints. His most famous picture is called The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Hokusai's Wave ukiyo-e is one of a series called '36 Views of Mount Fuji'. Mount Fuji is a volcano not far from Tokyo - which was called Edo in Hokusai's time. Very few of the prints are actually of Mount Fuji, but each of them has Mount Fuji somewhere in the background. Some provide a fascinating look at life in Japan at the time. The world of Edo In 1603, the military government of Japan was no longer in Kyoto - the old capital. It was in Edo - formerly a small fishing village. By the early 1700s it had a population of more than 1 million. That made it the biggest city in the world at the time. Edo was a city of narrow streets and wooden houses. At the centre was Edo Castle, where the shogun, or ruler of all Japan, lived. Because so many people lived in wooden houses in such a small area, fires were a real risk. One fire in 1657 might have killed 10,000 people. now do this 1 Edo was the old name for a. Tokyo b. Kanagawa c. Kyoto 2 Ukiyo-e are ... a. paintings b. silk-screen prints c. woodblock prints 3 In the Edo period, the ruler of Japan was ... a. the emperor b. the shogun c. the samurai Answers January 4 1. b, 2. a, 2. b
