At the end of the Muromachi Era, genre paintings were very popular. The manners and customs of the man in the street or annual events were depicted and the center of the flourished culture was in the Kyoto-Osaka area. They were the pictures depicting festivals, men playing with courtesans or prostitutes, scenes of war, women, and so on. This culture was handed down to the Kan-ei genre paintings in the Edo era.

The word "Ukiyo" appeared in the middle of the 17th century (The begining of the Edo era). The word, Ukiyo, was created by rhyming and mixing the meaning of two words, "Ukiyo" and "Fusei". These words imply the transitory world of humans with never-ending hardship and the frailty and short-lived life of human existence. The original meaning of the word was expanded to include the meanings of pleasure seeking and being divorced from reality, which further changed to mean "The present day" or "the latest fashion".

Around this time, about 50 years after the opening of the Edo Shogunate Government (1603), when the city had made gradual development and the citizen's life showed signs of settlement, an astounding incident, the big fire of the Meireki period, which was called "the arson by a broken-hearted maiden", occurred. The fire broke out on the 18th of January 1657 (The third year of Meireki) and continued to the following day, and it reduced most of the city to ashes. It was recorded to have killed more than 100,000 people and changed the entire city. Taking this chance, large scale reconstruction work was performed and the towns of Edo was restored out of all recognition. This incident also affected the old culture. The culture which originally came from the Kyoto-Osaka area was on the decline, while the new culture which originated in Edo came out. This was around the period of the fourth Shogun Ietsuna.

The disenfranchized merchants, though they controlled the economy, were frustrated because of the shogunal government policy which preserved social order, setting the classes of warriors, farmers, artisans and tradesmen, among which they were ranked lowest. This frustration drove them to seek pleasure in the pleasure quarters or Kabuki plays. The cradle of Ukiyo-e can be found in such historical background. It is said that the drawings of beauties came out of the pleasure quarters and those of plays and actors from Kabuki. Those Ukiyo-e were so susceptible to the times that what was popular at the moment and seen in daily life was depicted. Thus, Ukiyo-e played a role of mass media to an extent.

In 1672 (the twelfth year of Kanbun period), an illustrated book, "The Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets of Buke ", was published in Edo (present-day Tokyo). The name of Hishikawa Moronobu, a town artist, first appeared in the book. Hishikawa Moronobu (1631? - 1694) was born in Hoda, Awano-kuni (present-day Chiba prefecture), and came to live in Edo to become an illustrator for a book. Moronobu, had a lively time in creating both the drawing of the design of Ukiyo-e for printing and the drawings painted by hand, and left many artworks depicting beauties and other things. He may be regarded as the forerunner of a long line of Ukiyo-e artists and the originator of Ukiyo-e. Particularly, his achievement in developing Sumizuri-e, single sheet woodblock prints, is great and must be noted. He developed illustrations for the various types of popular books into independent pictures printed by woodblocks for people's appreciation. Sumizuri-e, the special feature of which, was lines and the effects of linear patterns and the contrast of black and white, was greatly supported by the townsmen of Edo.

It may be said that Ukiyo-e came to being in the periods of Manji and Kanbun (1658 - 1673) in which Moronobu was at full blast.

Although Ukiyo-e is categorized in two groups, paintings by hand and woodblock prints, since we are researching the history of printing, we place our focus on woodblock prints.

Japan, at the times of Edo era, was strongly influenced by the culture of China. Colored woodblock prints appeared in some places in China, including Soshu near Shanghai as its center, during the period from the end of the Ming dynasty to the beginning of the Ch'ing dynasty (the 17th - the beginning of the 18th Century). The woodblock prints of Soshu are known as genre paintings. Those works came to Japan through Nagasaki and other parts of Japan.

Learning from the techniques used on Soshu woodblock prints, woodblock prints called Benizuri-e, colored with three or four colors, were created. It is said that Kento, the simplest device (a right-angled mark engraved at the lower right-hand corner of the original block, and a straight mark in exact line with its lower arm at the left) for securing accurate register, was developed around this period. According to another view, it was an invention by Emiya Kichiemon, a publisher in Edo. By appearance of Benizuri-e, the system of cooperation by three different craftsmen; the artist, the block-maker or engraver, and the printer, was established.

This system of specialization has good comparison with the modern printing process.

Compared with drawing by handcolored with brush, polychrome printing of woodblock which prints enabled publishing by mass and speedy production, at an inexpensive price, was welcome by the people and became popular items in Edo. In about 100 years, Ukiyo-e developed from Sumizuri-e to Tan-e, Beni-e, and finally Benizuri-e, in the course of which, themes of drawings in Ukiyo-e woodblock prints increased in the variety. Prints depicting warriers, birds and flowers, landscapes of scenic spots, and so on, were published. Techniques, by which Urushi-e and Uki-e were created, were also developed.

Sumizuri-e
Flower Viewing in the Grounds of Kan'eiji, Ueno
(Jihei Sugimura)
(Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum)

Tan-e
Preparing for Battle Nakamura Gentaro as Tomoe Gozen and Asao Jujiro as Sagano
(Kiyomasu Torii)
(Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum)

Benizuri-e
Man and Woman Beneath a Plum Tree, Parody of Emperor Xuan Zong and Yang Gui Fei
(Kiyohiro Torii)
(Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum)