Exploring with Hokusai! The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Ukiyo-e Prints

The Sumida Hokusai Museum (Sumida City, Tokyo) holds exhibition ”Exploring with Hokusai! The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Ukiyo-e Prints” from December 11, 2025 to February 23, 2026.

Ukiyo-e prints were mass produced, while each brush-drawn artwork was a unique. Visitors to Edo would purchase these prints as souvenirs to take home, which helped spread Ukiyo-e prints widely outside Edo.

Today, ukiyo-e prints including Hokusai’s Under the Wave off Kanagawa, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, are worldwide known. This global recognition is likely due to the fact that those mass-produced works have been scattered broadly, giving many people opportunities to see them.

Moreover, Ukiyo-e prints served as a means of communicating information, often depicting the scenes from everyday lives in Edo. They continue to serve this purpose today, providing us with a glimpse into everyday lives of people from that period in Edo.

This exhibition focuses on ukiyo-e prints, exploring their history, the techniques used, and their themes.

Please enjoy the wide-ranging appeal of Ukiyo-e prints.

Highlights of Exhibition

①The evolution and technological innovation of Ukiyo-e prints

You will see the transition from "sumizuri-e" printed in a single color, sumi black to "nishiki-e”, polychrome prints. Introduction of the registration mark, "kento" allowed for precise layering of colors.

②Elaborated beauty by Craftsmanship in Collaboration

Ukiyo-e prints are created through the collaboration of four key roles: the publisher, the artist, the carver, and the printer. You can see the delicate carving and ingenuity of the printing process focused on the ultimate beauty born from this division of work.

③"Media in Edo" reflecting the life and times of people living in Edo

Through various themes of Ukiyo-e prints depicting Kabuki actors, famous places, beauties, fans, and advertisements, you can see the life and times of people living in Edo.

Exhibition Composition and Main Works

Section 1 Japan’s Woodblock Prints: The Beginnings

The history of Ukiyo-e prints, from sumizuri-e" to nishiki-e is extensive.

Let’s begin exploring by looking at woodblock prints as they existed before the Edo period.

*The beginning of Japanese woodblock printing technology is deeply related to the spread of Buddhism, which was introduced from China during the Asuka period (593-710).

In the Heian period (794-1192), to produce them in large volumes, Buddhist sutras (texts) were printed using woodblocks.

Unknown,

Inbutsu of a Seated Image of Amida,

The Sumida Hokusai Museum (1st term)

*In the Kanpō era (1741-44), it became possible to produce prints by layering multiple colors, the number of colors were limited, though. The invention of the registration mark (kentō) contributed to the colors aligned properly.

Section 2 Exploring Ukiyo-e Print

*In Meiwa 2 (1765), a craze for designing the picture calendars called daishō (large/small) swept through the public. Aficionados often held gatherings for picture calendar exchange, where they competed to design more sophisticated picture calendars.

The technique for polychrome woodblock prints (nishiki-e) dramatically improved.

 Daisho" is a work that skillfully hides the lengths of the months in the lunar calendar.

Please refer to my previous article.

https://www.tokyo2020chiba.com/post/let-s-decode-calendars-by-hokusai-and-others

You can see how to produce Ukiyo-e prints in multiple colors.

*Ukiyo-e prints varied in size. The sizes of ukiyo-e are based on half of the full sheet of paper, then cut in half again, so that no paper was wasted. Since ukiyo-e prints were commercial products, they offered high quality and value, regardless of the format.

You can see the craftsman's skills, especially carving and printing techniques, which were clearly evident in the prints across all their varying sizes.

*Ukiyo-e prints demonstrate the sophisticated carving and printing techniques possible with woodblock prints, which added to their visual fascination.

You can see the craftsman’s skills in the finest details. 

Section 3 Ukiyo-e Prints in Daily Life

Ukiyo-e prints were also a medium for sending out information. These prints, which were so familiar to the people of Edo, were also useful daily necessities.

*Ukiyo-e are pictures of the ukiyo, the world of today. Anything in the lives of ordinary people in Edo could be the subject­̶portraits of favorite Kabuki actors, the pictures of famous places, beauties, and so on. The themes were countless!

*Woodblock prints utilized a printing technique for everyday commodities such as fans, flyers, advertising products, bags to hold sweets, toys, as well as works reporting the latest celebrity news.

Consequently, the themes of these Ukiyo-e prints centered on everyday life and matters.

Section 4 Ukiyo-e Prints Change with the Times

In the Meiji period, the role of ukiyo-e, which had provided ordinary people with all sorts of information, gradually became to diminish. New media, including photographs and newspapers took its place. However, voices of mourning emerged regarding the slow disappearance of Edo's original landscape and traditional woodblock printmaking methods.

Consequently, a strong trend of Edo remembrance developed.

*In the Meiji period, new products, new ideas, and new values poured in. Ukiyo-e prints appeared that depicted the changing cityscapes, and the changing times.

*The traditional woodblock print techniques were on the verge of dying out. However, a new artistic movement emerged that utilized expressive woodblock print techniques. These modern prints,­̶often referred to as Shin-hanga ("new prints")­̶captured subtle atmospheric qualities and moods that photography simply could not reproduce,­­­­­­­­­ thus ushering in a new era for the ukiyo-e tradition.

You can see this innovation in the work of artists like Kobayashi Kiyochika,Yoshida Hiroshi.

For more information, please access here.