Editing Ukiyo-e (section)

===Pre-history===

Japanese art since the [[Heian period]] (794–1185) had followed two principal paths: the nativist {{transliteration|ja|[[Yamato-e]]}} tradition, focusing on Japanese themes, best known by the works of the [[Tosa school]]; and Chinese-inspired {{transliteration|ja|kara-e}} in a variety of styles, such as the monochromatic [[ink wash painting]]s of [[Sesshū Tōyō]] and his disciples. The [[Kanō school]] of painting incorporated features of both.{{sfn|Lane|1962|pp=8–9}}

Since antiquity, Japanese art had found patrons in the aristocracy, military governments, and religious authorities.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|p=66}} Until the 16th century, the lives of the common people had not been a main subject of painting, and even when they were included, the works were luxury items made for the ruling [[samurai]] and rich merchant classes.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|pp=66–67}} Later works appeared by and for townspeople, including inexpensive monochromatic paintings of female beauties and scenes of the theatre and pleasure districts. The hand-produced nature of these {{nihongo||仕込絵|shikomi-e}} limited the scale of their production, a limit that was soon overcome by genres that turned to mass-produced [[woodblock printing]].{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|pp=67–68}}

[[File:Kano Hideyori - Maple Viewers - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|alt=A painted screen of six panels depicting a park-like setting in which visitors enjoy the scenery.|''Maple Viewing at Takao'' (mid-16th century) by [[Kanō Hideyori]] is one of the earliest Japanese paintings to feature the lives of the common people.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|p=66}}]]

During a [[Sengoku period|prolonged period of civil war]] in the 16th century, a class of politically powerful merchants developed. These {{interlanguage link|Machishū|ja|町衆|lt={{transliteration|ja|machishū}}}}, the predecessors of the [[Edo period]]'s {{transliteration|ja|[[chōnin]]}}, allied themselves with the court and had power over local communities; their patronage of the arts encouraged a revival in the classical arts in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.{{sfn|Kita|1984|pp=252–253}} In the early 17th century, [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] (1543–1616) unified the country and was appointed [[shōgun]] with supreme power over Japan. He consolidated [[Tokugawa shogunate|his government]] in the village of [[Edo (Tokyo)|Edo]] (modern Tokyo),{{sfn|Penkoff|1964|pp=4–5}} and required the [[Daimyō|territorial lords]] to [[Sankin-kōtai|assemble there in alternate years]] with their entourages. The demands of the growing capital drew many male labourers from the country, so that males came to make up nearly seventy percent of the population.{{sfn|Marks|2012|p=17}} The village grew during the Edo period (1603–1867) from a population of 1800 to over a million in the 19th century.{{sfn|Penkoff|1964|pp=4–5}}

The centralized shogunate put an end to the power of the {{transliteration|ja|machishū}} and divided the population into [[Four occupations|four social classes]], with the ruling samurai class at the top and the merchant class at the bottom. While deprived of their political influence,{{sfn|Kita|1984|pp=252–253}} those of the merchant class most benefited from the rapidly expanding economy of the Edo period,{{sfn|Singer|1986|p=66}} and their improved lot allowed for leisure that many sought in the pleasure districts—in particular [[Yoshiwara]] in Edo{{sfn|Penkoff|1964|pp=4–5}}—and collecting artworks to decorate their homes, which in earlier times had been well beyond their financial means.{{sfn|Penkoff|1964|p=6}} The experience of the pleasure quarters was open to those of sufficient wealth, manners, and education.{{sfn|Bell|2004|p=137}}

[[File:Tokugawa Ieyasu2.JPG|thumb|alt=Painting of a mediaeval Asian man seated and dressed in splendour|[[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] established his government in the early 17th century in Edo (modern Tokyo).{{pb}}''Portrait of Tokugawa Ieyasu'', Kanō school painting, [[Kanō Tan'yū]], 17th century]]

[[Woodblock printing in Japan]] traces back to the {{transliteration|ja|[[Hyakumantō Darani]]}} in 770&nbsp;CE. Until the 17th century, such printing was reserved for Buddhist seals and images.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|p=68}} [[Movable type]] appeared around 1600, but as the [[Japanese writing system]] required about 100,000 type pieces,{{efn|Many of these type pieces were repeat characters; as certain characters were used multiple times on the same page, multiples of these characters needed to be available to the printer.}} hand-carving text onto woodblocks was more efficient. In {{Interlanguage link|Saga, Kyoto|ja|3=嵯峨野}}, calligrapher [[Hon'ami Kōetsu]] and publisher {{Interlanguage link|Suminokura Soan|ja|3=角倉素庵}} combined printed text and images in an adaptation of ''[[The Tales of Ise]]'' (1608) and other works of literature.{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=37}} During the [[Kan'ei]] era (1624–1643) illustrated books of folk tales called {{transliteration|ja|tanrokubon}} ('orange-green books') were the first books mass-produced using woodblock printing.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|p=68}} Woodblock imagery continued to evolve as illustrations to the {{transliteration|ja|[[kanazōshi]]}} genre of tales of hedonistic urban life in the new capital.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|p=69}} The rebuilding of Edo following the [[Great Fire of Meireki]] in 1657 occasioned a modernization of the city, and the publication of illustrated printed books flourished in the rapidly urbanizing environment.{{sfn|Kobayashi|1997|pp=69–70}}

The term {{nihongo||浮世|ukiyo}}, which can be translated as 'floating world', was [[Homophone|homophonous]] with the ancient Buddhist term {{nihongo||憂き世|ukiyo}}, meaning 'this world of sorrow and grief'. The newer term at times was used to mean 'erotic' or 'stylish', among other meanings, and came to describe the hedonistic spirit of the time for the lower classes. [[Asai Ryōi]] celebrated this spirit in the novel {{transliteration|ja|Ukiyo Monogatari}} (''Tales of the Floating World'', {{circa|1661}}):{{sfn|Hickman|1978|pp=5–6}}

{{blockquote
|text = [L]iving only for the moment, savouring the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms, and the maple leaves, singing songs, drinking sake, and diverting oneself just in floating, unconcerned by the prospect of imminent poverty, buoyant and carefree, like a gourd carried along with the river current: this is what we call {{transliteration|ja|ukiyo}}.}}