Ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e, meaning “images of the floating world,” is a type of woodblock print developed by Japanese artists. At first, this was not seen as a fine art, but after the technique became more sophisticated, people began to value it more.

A woodblock print would be created, and then artists would add ink, paint, and chalk by hand. As evident in this image, the figures appear to be “floating” on the paper, thus the name.