Editing Ukiyo-e (section)

===Themes and genres===
Typical subjects were female beauties ("{{Transliteration|ja|[[bijin-ga]]}}"), kabuki actors ("{{Transliteration|ja|[[yakusha-e]]}}"), and landscapes. The women depicted were most often courtesans and geisha at leisure, and promoted the entertainments to be found in the pleasure districts.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=60}} The detail with which artists depicted courtesans' fashions and hairstyles allows the prints to be dated with some reliability. Less attention was given to accuracy of the women's physical features, which followed the day's pictorial fashions—the faces stereotyped, the bodies tall and lanky in one generation and petite in another.{{sfn|Hillier|1954|p=20}} Portraits of celebrities were much in demand, in particular those from the kabuki and [[sumo]] worlds, two of the most popular entertainments of the era.{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=95, 98}} While the landscape has come to define ukiyo-e for many Westerners, landscapes flourished relatively late in the ukiyo-e's history.{{sfn|Michener|1959|p=175}}

[[File:Suzuki Harunobu - Evening Snow on the Heater.jpg|thumb|alt=Colour print of two finely dressed Japanese women by a heater. The wallpaper and other items are extensively embossed.|Portraits of beauties were a mainstay of ukiyo-e. The wallpaper and other items in this [[nishiki-e|brocade print]] are extensively [[paper embossing|embossed]].{{pb}}''[[Evening Snow on the Nurioke]]'', [[Suzuki Harunobu|Harunobu]], 1766]]

Ukiyo-e prints grew out of book illustration—many of Moronobu's earliest single-page prints were originally pages from books he had illustrated.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=37}} {{Transliteration|ja|[[E-hon]]}} books of illustrations were popular{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=41}} and continued be an important outlet for ukiyo-e artists. In the late period, Hokusai produced the three-volume ''[[One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji]]'' and the 15-volume ''Hokusai Manga'', the latter a compendium of over 4000 sketches of a wide variety of realistic and fantastic subjects.{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=38, 41}}

Traditional Japanese religions do not consider sex or pornography a moral corruption in the sense of most [[Abrahamic religions|Abrahamic faiths]],{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=124}} and until the changing morals of the Meiji era led to its suppression, [[shunga]] erotic prints were a major genre.{{sfnm|1a1=Seton|1y=2010|1p=64|2a1=Harris|2y=2011|p=119}} While the Tokugawa regime subjected Japan to strict censorship laws, pornography was not considered an important offence and generally met with the censors' approval.{{sfn|Lane|1962|p=224}} Many of these prints displayed a high level a draughtsmanship, and often humour, in their explicit depictions of bedroom scenes, voyeurs, and oversized anatomy.{{sfn|Seton|2010|p=64}} As with depictions of courtesans, these images were closely tied to entertainments of the pleasure quarters.{{sfn|Screech|1999|p=15}} Nearly every ukiyo-e master produced shunga at some point.{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=128}} Records of societal acceptance of shunga are absent, though [[Timon Screech]] posits that there were almost certainly some concerns over the matter, and that its level of acceptability has been exaggerated by later collectors, especially in the West.{{sfn|Screech|1999|p=15}}

Scenes from nature have been an important part of Asian art throughout history. Artists have closely studied the correct forms and anatomy of plants and animals, even though depictions of human anatomy remained more fanciful until modern times. Ukiyo-e nature prints are called {{Transliteration|ja|[[kachō-e]]}}, which translates as "flower-and-bird pictures", though the genre was open to more than just flowers or birds, and the flowers and birds did not necessarily appear together.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=132}} Hokusai's detailed, precise nature prints are credited with establishing {{Transliteration|ja|kachō-e}} as a genre.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=134}}

The Tenpō Reforms of the 1840s suppressed the depiction of actors and courtesans. Aside from landscapes and {{Transliteration|ja|kachō-e}}, artists turned to depictions of historical scenes, such as of ancient warriors or of scenes from legend, literature, and religion. The 11th century ''[[The Tale of Genji|Tale of Genji]]''{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=146}} and the 13th-century ''[[The Tale of the Heike|Tale of the Heike]]''{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=155–156}} have been sources of artistic inspiration throughout Japanese history,{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=146}} including in ukiyo-e.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=146}} Well-known warriors and swordsmen such as [[Miyamoto Musashi]] (1584–1645) were frequent subjects, as were depictions of monsters, the supernatural, and heroes of [[Japanese mythology|Japanese]] and [[Chinese mythology]].{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=148, 153}}

From the 17th to 19th centuries, [[Sakoku|Japan isolated itself]] from the rest of the world. Trade, primarily with the Dutch and Chinese, was restricted to the island of [[Dejima]] near [[Nagasaki]]. Outlandish pictures called {{Transliteration|ja|Nagasaki-e}} were sold to tourists of the foreigners and their wares.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=163}} In the mid-19th century, [[Yokohama]] became the primary foreign settlement after 1859, from which Western knowledge proliferated in Japan.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=163–164}} Especially from 1858 to 1862, {{Transliteration|ja|[[Yokohama-e]]}} prints documented, with various levels of fact and fancy, the growing community of world denizens with whom the Japanese were now coming in contact;{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=166–167}} triptychs of scenes of Westerners and their technology were particularly popular.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=170}}

Specialized prints included {{Transliteration|ja|[[surimono]]}}, deluxe, limited-edition prints aimed at connoisseurs, of which a five-line {{Transliteration|ja|[[kyōka]]}} poem was usually part of the design;{{sfn|King|2010|p=111}} and {{Transliteration|ja|[[uchiwa-e]]}} printed [[hand fan]]s, which often suffer from having been handled.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=37}}

{{Clear}}

<gallery caption="Ukiyo-e genres" mode="packed" heights="230px">
SharakuTwoActors.jpg|{{Transliteration|ja|[[Yakusha-e]]}} print of two kabuki actors{{pb}}[[Sharaku]], 1794
Hokusai Manga 02.jpg|[[Sumo]] wrestlers in preparation, {{Transliteration|ja|[[e-hon]]}} page from ''[[Hokusai Manga]]''{{pb}}[[Hokusai]], early 19th century
Katsushika Hokusai, published by Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudō) - Peonies and Canary (Shakuyaku, kanaari), from an untitled series known as Small Flowers - Google Art Project.jpg|''Peonies and Canary''{{pb}}{{Transliteration|ja|[[Bird-and-flower painting|Kachō-ga]]}} by [[Hokusai]], {{circa|1834}}
Kaichu hiho, jiiro haya shinan, mid 1830s-early 1840s.jpg|alt=Illustrations of various sex positions|From erotic {{Transliteration|ja|[[Shunga (art)|shunga]]}} sex manual ''Treasures Hidden in our Pockets''{{pb}}[[Keisai Eisen|Eisen]], {{circa|1830s–40s}}
Utagawa Yoshitora (1860) English Couple (crop).jpg|''English Couple''{{pb}}{{Transliteration|ja|[[Yokohama-e]]}} by [[Utagawa Yoshitora]], 1860
</gallery>