Yokohama-e are ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e

' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...

 Japanese woodblock prints

Woodblock printing in Japan

Woodblock printing in Japan is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only...

 depicting foreigners and scenes of Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

. In 1859, the port of Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 was opened to foreigners, and ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e

' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...

 artists, primarily of the Utagawa school

Utagawa school

The was a group of Japanese woodblock print artists, founded by Toyoharu. His pupil, Toyokuni I, took over after Toyoharu's death and raised the group to become the most famous and powerful woodblock print school for the remainder of the 19th century....

, produced more than 800 different woodblock prints in response to a general curiosity about these strangers. The production of Yokohama-e ceased in the 1880s.

The most prolific artists working in this genre were Utagawa Yoshitora

Utagawa Yoshitora

was a designer of ukiyo-e Japanese woodblock prints and an illustrator of books and newspapers who was active from about 1850 to about 1880. He was born in Edo , but neither his date of birth nor date of death is known. He was an important pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi who excelled in prints of...

, Utagawa Yoshikazu, Utagawa Sadahide, Utagawa Yoshiiku

Utagawa Yoshiiku

, also known as or , was a Japanese artist of the Utagawa school.-Early life:Yoshiiku was the son of a teahouse proprietor and became a student of Utagawa Kuniyoshi.-Career:Yoshiiku is known as a ukiyo-e print designer and as a newspaper illustrator....

, Utagawa Yoshimori, Utagawa Hiroshige II, Utagawa Hiroshige III, Utagawa Yoshitoyo, and Utagawa Yoshitomi.

External links

• Japan and the West: Artistic Cross-Fertilization, at the Library of Congress, including examples of Yokohama-e