Books about Ukiyo e from Amazon.com

This unique book by tattoo artist Takahiro Kitamura (Horitaka, a pupil of Horiyoshi III) discusses the art of the Japanese tattoo in the context of Ukiyo-e, concentrating on the parallel histories of the woodblock print and the tattoo. Through high quality illustrations it shows that the Japanese tattoo is highly reliant on and linked to the woodblock print and that it deserves a position among the other art forms. A range of typical ukiyo-e motifs in the Japanese tattoo are discussed and illustrated by the original Japanese prints, and sketches, drawings and tattoos by tattoo master Horiyoshi III. The book ends with a special essay by Don Ed Hardy..
Price: $38.25 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Japanese woodblock prints, or ukiyo-e, occupy a singular position in the lexicon of world art. They enthralled such Western artists as Whistler, Manet, Degas, and van Gogh, and gave rise to a wave of "japonisme" in the salons of Paris, London, and New York that left a lasting impression.
As the successor to previous aristocratic traditions, the ukiyo-e print represents the last flowering of traditional pictorial art before Japan entered the modern era. These "pictures of the floating world" reflected the world of the townspeople of Edo (Tokyo), focusing on the popular entertainments of the day, landscapes of favored scenic spots, and portraits of well-known geisha, kabuki actors, and sumo stars.
The present volume delves into the history of these unique artistic endeavors, tracing their development from the lavish works commissioned by aristocratic patrons in the sixteenth century to their peak in popularity among the rising merchant class of the flourishing future capital. As the story of the genre's blossoming unfolds, Mr. Kobayashi's illuminating commentary on all its varied aspects-styles, artists, engravers, printers, and the demands of an insatiable but fickle public-captures the essence of the art and provides a fascinating glimpse into the culture of old Japan. With the large color plates and numerous detailed close-ups accompanying the text, Ukiyo-e: An Introduction is essential reading for anyone interested in exploring the exotic world of the Japanese print..
Price: $14.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $2.07 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The art of ukiyo-e (the floating world) originated in the city of Edo (1603-1867, now Tokyo), when the political and military power of Japan was in the hands of the shoguns Comprising six essays, six plate sections and over 600 illustrations this beautiful book provides a perfect introduction to the art of this period. The paintings, scrolls and prints reproduced here demonstrate not only the new urban pleasures of the theatre, restaurants, teahouses and geisha, but also Japan's love of nature and tradition. Professor Calza's accessible style provides a fascinating yet scholarly study of such masters as Hokusai, Hiroshige and Utamaro..
Price: $30.79 [Notify me when price goes down.]

25 cartoons in colour.

Tetsuro Susumu, member of The Japan Cartoonists Association, born 1960 in Japan. Participated in many international cartoon competitions

His cartoons are not the kind that induce big laughter. They are mostly of the kind that makes people grin, smile or heart-warming. Cartoons show Japan's emotions like ukiyo-e (hokusai-manga), tanka (Japanese poem) and haiku (apology and an antique look).

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Price: $3.60 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Hokusai is perhaps the Asian artist best known in the West. His influence has extended from the Impressionists to later modern art and even to commercial design. A few of his works are so frequently reproduced that they are almost as familiar as the face of the Mona Lisa. Yet the "Great Wave" and the "Red Fuji" from the Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji represent only a tiny action of Hokusai's output. The pages of the Sketches, with their teeming humanity and their boundless interest in the details of everyday life, give only a small idea of his true scope. Hokusai's life was characterized by a prodigious energy and productivity that continued to the end of his ninth decade; his output comprises a correspondingly broad variety of genres and styles. Despite this, it is still not sufficiently realized just how great is the range, and how many masterpieces it includes.
The bold compositions and the grasp of essentials seen in the Thirty-six Views find their counterpart in the masterly monochromes of the One Hundred views of Mt. Fuji. Against the daring simplifications of these works may be set the elaborate refinement and delicacy seen in many of the surimono prints and books of illustrated verse. The brilliant coloring and decorative qualities of Hokusai's brush paintings of beautiful women and legendary subjects are rivalled by the unsurpassed skill in ink drawing found in the best of his book illustrations, some of which are masterpieces in their own right.
Even the flower-and-bird series and the albums of sketches from life, which might seem to represent essentially minor genres, provide at their best a sense of color and inventiveness of composition that rival those of Hokusai's landscapes. On the oilier hand, the interest in human beings and in genre subjects is not confined to the Sketches and some of the Thirty-six Views, but is apparent again and again in the art manuals, the book illustrations, and even in a late print series such as the Nurse's Illustrated Hyakunin Isshu.
There are religious pictures and pictures of children and sumo wrestlers; experiments with Western perspective and with various combinations of style, whether Japanese, Chinese, or Western; moods ranging from the elegant to the earthy, from the lightly fanciful to the heavily grotesque. Even in his very last years, Hokusai's unflagging energy was taking him into new realms reaching beyond the ukiyo-e proper.
The aim of this work is to present a more balanced picture of Hokusai's achievement, a selection ranging over the whole oeuvre that will give some idea of the strength, the delicacy, and the fabulous inventive powers of this truly universal genius of the ukiyo-e..
Price: $14.31 [Notify me when price goes down.]