Pictures of the Floating World, or Ukiyo-e, was the art form that flourished in Japan from the mid-17th century to the end of the 19th century. Although paintings were a large and influential art form during this time, it is the popularist art of printmaking that chiefly typifies the Floating World. The term "ukiyo" was coined by Buddist monks to describe the world of the physical as fleeting or temporal. Ukiyo was the world of pleasure embraced by the newly emerging middle classes of Japan.

Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan adopted a policy of strict isolation in the 17th century. Closed-off from foreign trade and influence, art forms adopted from China, such as printmaking went through a transformation which made them uniquely Japanese. Since excursions abroad were forbidden, the emergent middle-classes sought leisure-time recreation through travel, theater and the various pleasure districts such as the Yoshiwara of Edo (Tokyo). Woodblock prints were created as souvenirs and advertisements of the various pursuits in the Yoshiwara. They advertised tea houses, restaurants, theaters and brothels. They celebrated the local beauties, the waitresses, actors, plays, scenic views and courtesans. Artists developed new printing techniques and colors to the point of perfection. They were dubbed "nishiki-e", or brocade pictures, comparing them to the glorious colors of silk brocades.

This site exhibits a small sampling of the art produced by these masters between the 18th and 20th centuries.

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