JAPANESE PRINTS/ UKIYO

Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period (16151868) were the products of a highly commercialised and competitive publishing indu stry. Their content was inspired by the vibrant popular culture that flourished in Edo (Tokyo). At any given time scores of publishe rs competed for the services of the leading artists of the day. Publishers and artists displayed tremendous ingenuity in finding way s to sustain demand for prints and to to circumvent the restrictions placed upon them by government censorship.