MAJOR EXHIBITION
The Floating World: Masterpieces of Edo Japan
from the Worcester Art Museum
OPENS
February 11, 2024
CLOSES
June 30, 2024
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About the Exhibition
Enjoy more than 130 woodblock prints and painted scrolls from one of history’s most vibrant artistic eras.
After centuries of conflict and war, Japan’s Edo period (1603–1868) was a time of peace, stability, and economic growth. Members of the ruling class patronized artists, merchants, entertainers, and courtesans in major cities like Tokyo (then called Edo), Kyoto, and Osaka. Sharing a visual culture and appreciation for the transient pleasures of life, such diverse groups comingled in a metropolitan melting pot known as ukiyo, or “floating world.” There, a new art genre emerged: Ukiyo-e. These “pictures of the floating world” depict the lifestyle, pleasures, and interests of the urban population— from samurais, geishas, and kabuki actors to boat parties, palaces, and lush landscapes.
Not to be missed, this presentation marks the first time the Worcester Art Museum is touring its famed collection of Japanese artworks.
This exhibition is organized by the Worcester Art Museum with support from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
MEMBERS SEE IT FIRST.
Recreate a Print!
Visit our interactive printmaking station, where you can make a small-scale replica of Kitagawa Utamaro I 喜多川 歌麿, An Oiran and a Geisha, a woodblock print featured in our current special exhibition, The Floating World: Masterpieces of Edo Japan. This activity is located in the Check-in building.
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Image Gallery
Credit
The Floating World: Masterpieces of Edo Japan is organized by the Worcester Art
Museum with support from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
Generous funding for this exhibition is provided in part by The Freeman Foundation.
Press
Austin American-Statesman: Still Time to Enjoy Japanese Prints at the Blanton Museum of Art
“I can’t emphasize this enough: [The Floating World]…is an extremely rare treat.”
Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman
Arts and Culture Texas, Pleasures of the Floating World: Ukiyo-e at the Blanton
Glasstire, Review: “The Floating World: Masterpieces of Edo Japan” at the Blanton
In all, the many prints of The Floating World form a compelling document of a crucial moment in world history that should not be missed.
Lauren Moya Ford, Glasstire
Not Even Past, Review of The Floating World: Masterpieces of Edo Japan at the Blanton
Tribeza, “The Floating World” Boasts a Prolific Collection of Striking Japanese Prints
Feature Image Credit
Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), Fuji at Gotenyama, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, 1830–32, color woodblock print, Worcester Art Museum, John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.760