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Ukiyo-e and the Convention of Kanagawa: What role did they play in the genesis of Art Nouveau?
Art Nouveau was a style popular in Europe from the late 19th to early 20th centuries which
encompassed all areas of design. The term was coined in 1895 and the style was characterized by its
organic, precise lines, flat perspective and colour, delicate curves, detailed design and idealized figures;
usually of women (Meggs, 2011). The movement was shaped by various phenomena, such as the
Industrial revolution and the Arts and Crafts movement; additionally, Japanese ukiyo-e is thought to have
been a major inspiration to artists at that time (Meggs, 2011). In order to fully understand the style of Art
Nouveau, both ukiyo-e woodblock prints and the Convention of Kanagawa must be explored.
Image 1: Viewing Cherry Blossoms in Ueno (Ueno hanami no tei), by Hishikawa Moronobu. Early, single
colour ukiyo-e.
First, Ukiyo-e is a Japanese style of woodblock printing that was popular during the Tokugawa
shogunate, from 1603–1867 CE (Meggs, 2011); image 1 above is an example of the earliest form of
ukiyo-e, the single colour print. The name of the style translates to “pictures of the floating world”: the
“floating world” referring to the licensed red-light districts of the day (Avery, 2006). Many of the prints
depicted routine life in Edo (modern Tokyo), mainly regarding activities that would occur in such districts
(Meggs, 2011), though other lifestyles are also depicted (Ryoko, 2007). Other common themes portrayed in
ukiyo-e were beautiful women and geishas, landscapes, sexual encounters (Meggs, 2011) and Kabuki
performances (Hokusai Online, 2008). Interestingly, ukiyo-e is also a homophone for “sorrowful world”: a
term that refers to the Buddhist concept of the arduous cycle of death and rebirth, or saṃsāra (Ryoko,