Lectures at the MFA - Art for Everyone: Print Culture and the Floating World

The stability provided by the Tokugawa rulers led to increased prosperity and the rise of a new middle class with modest (and sometimes not so modest) disposable income, as well as a higher rate of literacy. Explore how popular printing became a viable field of commercial enterprise as most Edo residents could afford to buy professionally produced pictures for the first time. These images depicted the many ephemeral pleasures of the urban popular culture known as the Floating World: theaters, brothels, fashion, food, and more. The technology of inexpensive full-color woodblock printing was so satisfactory that it continued to be the primary medium for popular images until the beginning of the 20th century. Sarah Thompson, Terrie and Bradley Bloom Curator of Japanese Prints Thursday, October 23, 2025