Various Shells with Sea Weeds 19th century

Kubo Shunman created this print, Various Shells with Sea Weeds, with ink and color on paper. It’s a classic example of ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world.” The key thing to understand is that ukiyo-e prints weren’t made by solitary artists. They were the product of a division of labor. Shunman would have designed the image, which was then carved into woodblocks by specialist artisans. Other craftspeople would have been responsible for inking the blocks, layering the colors to create the final image, and then printing the final image. You might think of this as a factory system, in which individual workers are responsible for a small part of the overall process. Seen in this light, ukiyo-e can be understood as a proto-industrial art form, in which handcraft and mass production were combined.