Art of Japan and the Floating World
Ukiyo means “floating world” in Japanese, and besides its
original Buddhist overtones of Maya, the fleeting, illusory world, it came to
be associated during the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868) with the world of the
pleasures and amusements of the townsman (chonin) class: teahouses, the music,
dancing, and other entertainments of geisha, “pleasure quarters” in whose
establishments elegant and less-elegant courtesans were to be found;
over-the-top Kabuki theatre, Kyoka clubs at whose parties members composed
witty poetry. The painters and designers
of woodblock prints who provided the merchants, artisans, townsmen and even
some samurai with images of the floating world, or Ukiyo-e, include some of
Ukiyo’s mission is to bring you authentic, well-priced woodblock prints and occasional illustrated books and paintings, primarily from the Ukiyo-e school but also from other schools of Japanese art, including the twentieth-century woodblock movements of Shin Hanga (New Prints) and Sosaku Hanga (Creative Prints). Ukiyo is Howard Barnum, a knowledgeable collector of Japanese prints (whose day job is as a physicist working on quantum computing and information). I guarantee that all prints we sell are authentic and as described, or the purchase price will be refunded.
Contact Information:
Ukiyo
howard@ukiyoart.com