Ukiyo-E-Art Analysis

Throughout the human history, the propagation and exchange of culture was of routine way in the formation of a civilization. For this fact, numerous archeologists have had their endeavor around this premise to prove that all artifacts and artworks around us are originated from this interactive insight of human being. Their tireless efforts and passion have come to bear fruit such as Yoshinogari, which is the largest site of village ruins in Japan, and shows how Korea’s culture affected Japan’s Yayoi period. The same can be said of art.
In case of relation between Japonism and post-impressionism, we may deduce the conclusion that European artists had a strong passion to express their artistic inspiration in diverse procedures, and stumbled across Ukiyo-e remained in their mind as a strong loco motor. That because their use of
Edo refers to Japan’s capital city, old name of Tokyo, and at the same time, it indicates the Edo period, when Edo was the capital of Japan. While Edo stands for both specific period and the place, Ukiyo-e was also linked with the time and the period. The origin of Ukiyo-e traces back to traditional painting and genre painting before the Edo period, however, today’s common Ukiyo-e style was created after the beginning of Edo period. During that period, ‘Ukiyo’ signified ‘this world’ or ‘modern’, and attached to any words without a particular meaning. For example, a hat was called ‘Ukiyo-Boshi’ and an umbrella was called ‘Ukiyo-kasa.’ As time goes by, the meaning of ‘Ukiyo’ has expanded to indicate the world of obscene pleasure. At that time, a Japanese writer Ihara Saikaku wrote a fiction called ‘The Life of an Amorous Man’, and it considered as significant literature since it was the first time the word ‘Ukiyo-e’ appeared. It also created a new genre called ‘Ukiyo-zoshi’ that classified the suggestive