Ukiyo-e

• Woodblock print making is called ukiyo-e in Japanese. Although single-color woodblock printing was done before the Edo period (1603 to 1868), this is the period which defines the turning of woodblock print making into high art. Woodblock prints were created by the collective effort of a publisher, an artist, a woodblock cutter, and a printer. Early color prints were printed in black and white, then hand colored. Later printers developed the concept of registration marks to ensure that different colors lined up, or registered, properly and the wood block prints that come to mind when thinking of ukiyo-e were born.
  
  

Toyokuni Utagawa

• Toyokuni Utagawa was a famous 18th century woodblock printmaker known for his exquisite bijin-ga, or prints of beautiful women, and actors. His father was a puppet maker, and after studying ukiyo-e he came to prominence after starting to create prints of well-known kabuki theater scenes and actors. Toyokuni Utagawa died in 1825.
  
  

Eisen Kikukawa

• Eisen Kikukawa was born in 1790 and died in 1848. He studied woodblock printing under Kikugawa Eizan. He specialized in bijin-ga, or beautiful women and courtesans, and sung-ga, or erotic prints. A good example of what could happen when the cooperation between an artist and a publisher failed is landscape series that was started by Eisen Kikukawa, but finished by Hiroshige after a dispute between Eisen and the publisher.
  
  

Ando Hiroshige

• Ando Hiroshige was born in 1797 and died in 1858. He was well-known for his bijin-ga, but eventually stopped doing figure prints to focus on landscapes. One of his best-known series of prints is Hiroshige 36 Views of Fuji. Another well-known print series is Hiroshige 100 Views of Edo.
  
  

Utamaro Kitagawa

• Little is known about Utamaro Kitagawa's life before he illustrated the cover of a book on kabuki plays in 1775. He was unusual in his pursuit later in life of woodblock portraits of isolated women. Later he was told that some of his prints offended the Shogunate. He was sentenced to prison and spent 50 days in handcuffs two years before his death in 1806.
  
  

Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints

• A number of contemporary artists are following in the footsteps of the Edo period printmakers and producing fine art woodblock prints. Modern artists include Toyohide Akiyama, Iwao Akiyama and Umetaro Azechi.