Ukiyo-e（浮世絵） is woodblock prints depicted society and life. Ukiyo-e is an art form spanning more than three centuries. They are widely popular in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries that was just overlap the Tokugawa regime (Edo period, 1603-1860).
In 1603, the capital of Japan moved from Kyoto to Edo East (today's Tokyo). Edo gradually evolved into a densely populated metropolis of economic prosperity. Middle class liked stylish entertainment such as kabuki and geisha. Ukiyo-e literally means "pictures of the floating world" （浮世絵）which can be interpreted as the dissipation of the pleasure world.
The scene of prosperity inspirited Ukiyo-e artists. In the earliest period, Ukiyo-e painting mainly based on beauty , such as the geisha, and the conscripts who were very famous kabuki actors. Ukiyo-e were affordable because they could be mass-produced. Therefore they meant a lot for townsmen, who were generally not wealthy enough to afford an original painting.
From the 1860s, Ukiyo-e became a source of inspiration for many European impressionist painters in France and the rest of the West. Also Van Gogh's imitated ukiyo-e in style and in motif. For example, Le Père Tanguy, the portrait of the proprietor of an art supply shop, shows six different ukiyo-e in the background.
Sharaku (active in 1794 -1795) is widely considered as the woodblock printing mister in Japan. There was not much historical data about Sharaku. The only thing we know is he worked for around 11 months and then disappeared. Some people believe that 'Sharaku' is only a name which represented a group of artists. There are about around 147 pieces of ukiyo-e by Saraku. 140 pieces of the paintings will be exhibited next April in Tokyo.
Even though Saraku is a Japanese artist, he was forgotten in Japan after his death. But he was rediscovered in Europe towards the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. Most of his artwork is now kept by overseas museums because many of his work was flowed into Europe because of the World Fair, Exposition Universelle (1889). It's not difficult to understand how the European artist got to know Ukiyo-e, and be influenced by it.
