Utamaro, Hokusai Hiroshige. Geisha, Samurai and the Culture of Pleasure

The ukiyo-e masters are brought together in a volume that illustrates Japan's “floating world” between the 17th and 19th centuries.
The so-called Edo period (1603–1868) was extremely productive for Japan from a historical and artistic standpoint; later its influence would extend beyond the archipelago, as far as the West, where it gave rise to a real passion for Japanese aesthetics and culture. The term ukiyo-e, which translates as “pictures of a floating world,” refers to the woodblock colour prints that were first created in the Edo period by combining the talents of painters like Utamaro, Hokusai, and Hiroshige with the absolute mastery of block carvers and printers. These prints are the highest aesthetic expression of what could be called a “culture of pleasure,” pervaded by the awareness that the beauties of life must be enjoyed to the full because they are bound to end.