The ''Ukiyo-e Ruikō'' (, "Various Thoughts on Ukiyo-e") is a Japanese collection of commentaries and biographies of

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

artists. It did not appear in print during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

in which it was produced, but was circulated in handwritten copies subject with numerous additions and alterations. The writer

Ōta Nanpo was the most oft-used penname of Ōta Tan, a late Edo-period Japanese poet and fiction writer. Ōta Nanpo wrote primarily in the comedic forms of ''kyōshi'', derived from comic Chinese verse, and ''kyōka'', derived from ''waka'' poetry. Ōta Nan ...

produced the first version in 1790. More than 120 variants of the ''Ukiyo-e Ruikō'' are known. An edition with updates by

Santō Kyōden Santō Kyōden (山東京伝, 13 September 1761 Edo – 27 October 1816) was a Japanese artist, writer, and the owner of a tobacco shop during the Edo period. His real name was Iwase Samuru (岩瀬醒), and he was also known popularly as Kyō ...

, Sasaya Shishichi Kuninori, and

Shikitei Sanba , better known by his pen name , was a Japanese comic writer of the Edo period. Major works *''Ukiyoburo'' *''Ukiyodoko'' References

1776 births 1822 deaths Japanese writers of the Edo period {{Japan-writer-stub ...

in 1802 is the earliest extant copy, produced under the title ''Ukiyo-e Kōshō''. This version lists 37 artists and focuses mainly on ukiyo-e painters and major print designers. The ''Ukiyo-e Ruikō'' ranks artists regarded for their paintings higher than those mainly associated with their print designs, and highlights artists training in painterly schools such as the Kanō or painting traditions such as

Yamato-e is a style of Japanese painting inspired by Tang dynasty paintings and fully developed by the late Heian period. It is considered the classical Japanese style. From the Muromachi period (15th century), the term Yamato-e has been used to distingui ...

, suggesting the prestige painting held over printing.

References

Works cited

* * * {{Portal bar, Japan, Visual arts Edo-period works Ukiyo-e