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Wood Block Prints (Ukiyo-e)

Woodblock printing dates back to 770 CE. In the Heian period Woodblock printing was used for Buddhism   such as religious prints and texts. These prints were very simple at first because the Japanese had only used one colour to print. Later on they started to develop and experiment with colours and create complicated and visually beautiful prints using a variety of colours and techniques and tried to perfect the art of woodblock printing. A school named ukiyo-e which was an art school that had been created in around the late 16th century, this school had adopted Wood block printing as an artistic form and for their wood block prints they had done basic themes which were based on everyday life but with a twist making their prints look like they were a ''fleeting floating world''.  This ideology was based on the Buddist religion which its ideology is that life is ''fleeting and impermanent''. Woodblock artists and printing had become famous when an artist named Hishikawa Moronobu had been recognised for his master pieces of wood block printing.  In the Momoyama Era the subject depictions for woodblock printing had changed significantly into erotica such as whores and sluts of the pleasure district and famous kabuki actors. During this time prints were being made into several copies for the purpose of art and advertisements to the middle classes at the time the merchants and the artisans that were in the areas of the theaters and please districts.  

In the 19th century Japan had started to trade with the western world during that time woodblock prints were starting to become less popular in Japan. In the 20th century Japanese artists started to be influenced by a style called creative print (sosaku-hanga) were art could be more emotional and the artist could express themselves more and the theme of the painting could be more generalised.  Wood block printing though had still been used in newspapers in terms to paint a picture of a situation for example a war etc.  

The History of Ukiyo-e and Woodblock Printing in Japan. 2013. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.stolaf.edu/people/kucera/YoshidaWebsite/evolution/essay_pages/jason_bossen.htm. [Accessed 20 May 2013]. 

Woodblock Prints in the Ukiyo-e Style | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2013. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ukiy/hd_ukiy.htm. [Accessed 20 May 2013].