Floating World

Curated by Yuki Morimoto

Ukiyo-e, pictures of the floating world, were the posters and postcards of Edo: bright, cheap, and printed by the thousand from carved cherry-wood blocks. Some of the most famous images in art were sold for about the price of a bowl of noodles. They hang here at their real size, which is smaller than most people expect.

Walk in

12 works1 visit

The Flirtatious Type, from Ten Types in the Physiognomy of Women

Checklist

In the order you meet them, clockwise from the far wall.

1
North wall
Kitagawa Utamaro
Japanese, c. 1754–1806
The Flirtatious Type, from Ten Types in the Physiognomy of Women, c. 1793
Color woodblock print
36.9 × 25.4 cm (14 ½ × 10 in.)
2
North wall
Kitagawa Utamaro
Japanese, c. 1754–1806
Act VII from the series The Storehouse of Loyal Retainers, c. 1801–2
Color woodblock print; ink and color on paper
39.1 × 26.3 cm (15 ½ × 10 ¼ in.)
3
North wall
Katsushika Hokusai
Japanese, Tokyo (Edo) 1760–1849 Tokyo (Edo)
Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), or The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei), ca. 1830–32
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
25.4 × 38.1 cm (10 × 15 in.)
4
North wall
Katsushika Hokusai
Japanese, 1760–1849
Poem by Minamoto no Muneyuki from the series One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by the Nurse, 1835–36
Color woodblock print
24.2 × 35.3 cm (9 ½ × 14 in.)
5
East wall
Katsushika Hokusai
Japanese, Tokyo (Edo) 1760–1849 Tokyo (Edo)
Seaside Village in Winter, from Hokusai’s Album of Realistic Pictures (Hokusai shashin gafu), 1814
Detached plate from a woodblock printed book; ink and color on paper
20.3 × 31.8 cm (8 × 12 ½ in.)
6
East wall
Utagawa Hiroshige
Japanese, 1797–1858
Eight Views of Kanazawa at Night, 1857
Triptych of color woodblock prints
35.9 × 25.4 cm (14 ¼ × 10 in.)
7
East wall
Katsushika Hokusai
Japanese, 1760–1849
South Wind, Clear Sky, from Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, early 1830s
Color woodblock print
25.6 × 37.5 cm (10 × 14 ¾ in.)
8
South wall
Suzuki Harunobu
Japanese, 1724–1770
Young Woman Looking at a Pot of Pinks, c. 1767
Color woodblock print, with embossing
27 × 19.2 cm (10 ¾ × 7 ½ in.)
9
South wall
Suzuki Harunobu
Japanese, 1725–1770
Night Rain at the Double-Shelf Stand, from the series Eight Parlor Views (Zashiki hakkei), ca. 1766
Woodblock print (first edition); ink and colors on paper, medium-sized print (chuban)
28.6 × 20.3 cm (11 ¼ × 8 in.)
10
West wall
Utagawa Hiroshige
Japanese, 1797–1858
Tsukudajima from Eitai Bridge, from the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1858
Color woodblock print
36.5 × 24.5 cm (14 ¼ × 9 ¾ in.)
11
West wall
Utagawa Hiroshige
Japanese, 1797–1858
Driving Rain at Shōno, from Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaidō, 1833
Color woodblock print
38 × 25.4 cm (15 × 10 in.)
12
West wall
Utagawa Hiroshige
Japanese, 1797–1858
Yokkaichi: View of the Mie River, from the series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, c. 1833–34
Color woodblock print
38 × 25.3 cm (15 × 10 in.)