Old Japanese Village Ukiyo–e Poster

Ukiyo–e Woodblock prints were used as early as the eighth century in Japan to disseminate texts, especially Buddhist scriptures. The designer and painter Tawaraya Sotatsu (died ca. 1640) used wood stamps in the early seventeenth century to print designs on paper and silk. Woodblock prints of the Edo period most frequently depicted the seductive courtesans, samurai warriors and exciting kabuki actors of the large city pleasure districts. With time, art subjects included famous romantic scenery and eventually, in the final years of the nineteenth century, dramatic historical events. These pictures could be made in a much larger quantity and featured popular scenes that appealed in particular to the wealthy townspeople of the period.