Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints (or woodcuts) and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure districts. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan.Usually the word ukiyo is literally translated as 'floating world' in English, referring to an evanescent world, impermanent, fleeting beauty and a realm of entertainments (kabuki, courtesans, geisha) divorced from the responsibilities of the mundane, everyday world.

The novelist Asai Ryōi, in his Ukiyo monogatari ('Tales of the Floating World', c. 1661), defines the 'Floating World'

... Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating ... refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current...

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