Ukiyo-e are popular pictures of the everyday life of the urban class in the Edo period. Originally the word ukiyo was used to designate one of the Buddhist categories and could be translated as as "world of misery" or "world of sorrow". At the end of the 17^th century ukiyo came to mean the modern world, the world of earthly joys and pleasure. The creation of Japanese ukiyo-e prints reached its heyday at the end of the 18^th century. The main figures in ukiyo-e prints came to be representatives of the third estate: courtesans, actors, sumō wrestlers, characters from Japanese plays and legendary heroes.

These were illustrations for the novel "Genji-monogatari" written by a lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court, Murasaki Shikibu, at the turn of the 10^th century. Since it was first created and up until the present day, this novel about Prince Genji has always been an inexhaustible source of subjects for Japanese fine art. The most famous illustrations for the novel – a series of painted scrolls "Genji monogatari-emaki" – date from as long ago as the 12th century. The first prints on the subject of "Genji-monogatari" appeared at the beginning of the 18^th century: these were illustrated albums (e-hon) and single-sheet prints (ichimai-e) executed using the technique for black-and-white prints (urushi-e). Many of the ukiyo-e artists turned to the subject of the novel including Kitagawa Utamaro, Kikugawa Eizan and Utagawa Hiroshige.