Ukiyo-e, "pictures of the floating world," is mainly associated with woodblock printing in Japan, but this book is the first to feature the much less familiar ukiyo-e paintings, which use some
of the same motifs as the prints but present a very different aesthetic experience. Boston's Museum of Fine Arts has amassed some 700 examples of ukiyo-e from the 17th to the mid-19th centuries
and the exhibition "Drama and Desire" was the first to highlight this collection. For this exhibition catalogue, Morse (curator of Japanese art at the Museum) presents reproductions of the 80
or so pieces from the exhibition--including series devoted to explicit sexual imagery--together with textual descriptions. She also includes essays discussing ukiyo-e in the context of Edo
(Tokyo) society and culture; ukiyo-e's mixture of the "high" and the "low;" and the subculture of Edo courtesans, geishas, and male prostitutes. Annotation 穢2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
(booknews.com)
