The Floating World Emerges: Japanese Prints from the Clarence Buckingham Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago

The Main Gate, New Yoshiwara
c. 1745
Torii Kiyotada (Japanese, active c. 1716–51)
Hand-colored woodblock print; toku-oban yoko-e, beni-e
Clarence Buckingham Collection
1939.2152
© The Art Institute of Chicago

The Floating World Emerges

Japanese Prints from the Clarence Buckingham Collection

June 24, 2026 — September 6, 2026

The ideology that would become known as the floating world (ukiyo) developed following the great fire of 1657 in which vast portions of the city of Edo (now Tokyo) were destroyed.

Just a few years after that fire, in 1665, author Asai Ryōi described what this attitude was: “living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maples, singing songs, drinking wine, and diverting ourselves just in floating, floating, caring not a whit for the poverty staring us in the face, refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: This is what we call ukiyo.”

Pictures of the floating world (ukiyo-e) subsequently became essential portrayals of city life in the 17th century. Prints and paintings of women wearing elaborate kimonos appealed to urbanites’ sense of fashion and style, while depictions of Kabuki actors and their hedonistic existence provided excitement. Courtesans, who played a significant role in a society that glorified their appearance and glossed over their reality, were also a frequent ukiyo-e subject.

Prints were a profitable way to give the public the images they craved as mementos of their experiences or their fantasies. The appeal of ukiyo-e continued for almost 200 years, and the printing technology that developed as a result, especially color printing, reached heights unknown in the rest of the world.

This presentation brings together about 40 ukiyo-e prints, many given to the museum by a major collector and an early supporter of the Art Institute, Clarence Buckingham.

The Floating World Emerges: Japanese Prints from the Clarence Buckingham Collection is curated by Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Curator of Japanese Art, Arts of Asia.

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