Sharaku / Ukiyoe

(Otani Oniji II, dated 1794. The Kabuki actor Otani Oniji II in the role of Yakko (manservant))
Tōshūsai Sharaku (東洲斎 写楽, active 1794 - 1795) is widely considered to be one of the great masters of the woodblock printing in Japan. Little is known of him, besides his ukiyo-e prints; neither his true name nor the dates of his birth or death are known with any certainty. His active career as a woodblock artist seems to have spanned just ten months in the mid-Edo period of Japanese history, from the middle of 1794 to early 1795.

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Ukiyo-e (浮世絵) / Japanese Art

(Katsushika Hokusai’s “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji – Kanagawa-oki nami-ura
(The Great Wave off Kanagawa)”)
Ukiyo-e (浮世絵) prints and paintings are among the most widely known and admired arts of the Edo period. With the rise of the merchant class during the 17th century, there followed a demand for images of contemporary urban life in a new style reflecting the lives of the commoners.

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Ando Hiroshige (安藤広重) (2)

Refer to Ando Hiroshige again.
Legend has it that Hiroshige determined to become a ukiyo-e artist when he saw the prints of his near-contemporary,

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Ando Hiroshige (安藤広重) (1)

Refer to "Ando Hiroshige", one of the most famous "Ukiyo-e Artist" in Edo-era. Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川広重, Utagawa Hiroshige 1797 – October 12, 1858) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition.

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UKIYO-E (浮世絵) (2)

Ukiyo-e can be categorized into two periods: the Edo period, which comprises ukiyo-e from its origins in the 1620s until about 1867, when the Meiji period began, lasting until 1912.

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UKIYO-E (浮世絵) (1)

Ukiyo-e (浮世絵) is one of the typical "Traditional Art Culture" achieved a development in Japan and also had an influence on European Impressionism.
The artists incorporated Western elements such as the effects of light and the expression of individual moods but focused on strictly traditional themes.

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