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463

The Ukiyo-ye was the School of Art of the populace of the city of Yeddo during the two hundred and fifty years in which it was the capital of Japan, before 1868. In it, the artists, for the first time, came from the ranks of the common people, and derived their subjects from the life of the common people.
It began as a school of painting, which depicted the early theatrical shows, scenes at fairs and the dancers and musicians in vogue at the day.
Its next step was to devote itself to book illustration. From the early half of the seventeenth century, printed books for the education or amusement of the common people began to become common, and these were illustrated by rude wood-cuts in black and white, whose designing became the prerogative of the Ukiyo-ye artists.
About 1660, the demand for cheap, popular paintings became so large that the hint given by block printing was utilized in the designing of large prints to be hung up like pictures. These earlier large prints were still done in black and white, and are the earliest specimens in the collections of print lovers.
About 1715, there prints, hitherto executed in black outline, had the spaces filled in with colours applied by hand.