11. Kiyomizu Hall and Shinobazu Pond at Ueno 1857

Utagawa Hiroshige created this print of Kiyomizu Hall and Shinobazu Pond at Ueno using woodblock printing, a quintessential technique of the Edo period. Woodblock printing demanded a division of labor. Hiroshige would have designed the image, but specialist woodworkers then carved a series of blocks. One block would define the outlines, and others would apply individual colors. The printer then carefully layered these to create the final image. The success of this method lay in the registration of each block, and the ability to print hundreds, sometimes thousands, of identical images. The floating world prints, known as Ukiyo-e, were affordable, immensely popular, and mass produced. Considered through the lens of making, Hiroshige’s print reveals the industrialization of aesthetics. It collapses distinctions between craft and art. Each impression is the result of a collective enterprise, with countless hours of labor involved in the production process.