Japanese Studies Reference: Art History: Ukiyo-e / NIshiki-e Image Databases

A gateway to the digital collections created by Shizuoka Prefectural Central Library. Includes special collections as well as ukiyoe, old maps, post cards, local history, etc.

Part of the digital collection provided by Tokyo Metropolitan Library. To search 「浮世絵」within this system, select the thumbnail image of ukiyoe in the screen.

幕末・明治の錦絵など大阪風景版画250点を公開。

This digital collection features the 30 ukiyoe by Utagawa Yoshiume (1819-1879), provided by Osaka Municipal Library.

Created by 大阪府立中之島図書館, 250 ukiyoe images are searchable by genre, artist, place and current place name.

Archive of the 10 back issues of 『浮世絵芸術』 (Ukiyoe geijutsu), published from 1962 to 2009. Searchable by keywords in the title and author's name.

Provides bibliographic information and images of more than 750 "enpon (erotic books)," collected by Nichibunken. Registration required. (added 6/27/14)

Created by the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University. This database is intended to help search bibliographic information and the holding libraries of "enpon (erotic books)," published during the Edo Period. (added 6/27/14)

This collection includes more than 2,500 images of Japanese woodblock prints held by the Library of Congress. Subjects include actors, women, landscapes, scenes from Japanese literature and daily life, and Western foreigners.

This archive includes approx. 140 nishikie prints featuring food and sake. Great resource to study the food culture of Edo period Japan.

This is part of the digital collection provided by 国立国会図書館. To search, select 「錦絵」 or "Nishiki-e" to limit your search. An English search screen is available, but search terms must be in Japanese.

Created by Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies, University of Vienna, this database allows users to search "woodblock print caricatures which were commercially published between the Tenpō reforms (1842) and the Russo-Japanese War (1905). The trilingual database (in German, English and Japanese) is available online in order to make an important genre in ukiyo-e readily accessible to the public as well as to scholars around the world" (taken from main site).

Part of the digital collection at 萩美術館.

Features 82 ukiyoe prints which depict Yokohama Port, collected by 神奈川県立図書館.

Part of the digital collection by 阪急文化財団池田文庫, which focuses on 役者絵 and other stage performance related prints.

Provided by 渋沢栄一記念財団 (Shibuzawa Eiichi Memorial Foundation), this database allows users to search by tools, persons, and dresses depicted in the pictures.

This collection is comprised of almost 1,500 works.

"This is a collection of over 860 Ukiyo-e from the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate and Meiji period assembled by Professor George S. Bonn (1913-2003), who taught at Keio University" (taken from the main site).

This virtual museum was created by Nagoya TV, and portrays more than 8,000 ukiyo-e prints, donated by Mr. Yasuo Yajima, Management Director for the Asahi Shinbun. The collection includes prints created during the Edo period, including those by Hishikawa Moronobu, known as the founder of ukiyo-e. The collection also includes such local prints as Kamigata-e, Nagasaki-e, Yokohama-e Kaika-e (blossoming prints), and works in the 19th and 20th centuries.

This is part of the digital collection provided by 日本芸術文化振興会 (Japan Arts Council). This database allows users to search by title, personal names of actors, original artists, engravers, rakkan seals, publishers, etc.

Created by 国立国会図書館 (National Diet Library of Japan). "This exhibition presents 484 nishiki-e picturing 103 landmarks of Edo. Each page of a landmark gives a description, and present-day address, and with nishiki-e thumbnails, adds links to illustrated geographical booklets Edo Meisho Zue, and pictorial maps of Edo. In addition, linking to the existing exhibition 'The Meiji and Taisho Eras in Photographs,' it is possible to see photographs of landmarks of Edo in and after the Meiji Era" (taken from the main site).

The University of Pittsburgh Library System has digitized four complete sets that depict Noh theater, 「能樂圖繪 (Pictures of Noh)」「能楽百番 (Prints of One Hundred Noh Plays)」「能画大鑑 (A Great Collection of Prints of Noh Plays)」and 「狂言五十番 (Fifty Kyōgen Plays) 」.

Consists of 275, most of which were produced in the 1800s, covering approx. 40 artists.

This digital library introduces approx. 140 nishikie, many of which depict historical moments in the turn of the 20th century, including the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War.

This database showcases Ako City's Chushingura Ukiyoe collection.

Shimane Art Museum owns approx. 3,000 ukiyoe works, known as "Shinjo Collection" and "Nagata Collection." This sites introduces some of representative works from these collections as well as those which were purchased by the museum.

Created as a part of the Exhibition The Mount Fuji Challenges: Hokusai and Hiroshige," by Edo Tokyo Museum, this virtual exhibition allows users to explore the exhibition. Click the circle placed over each exhibited item to read the brief description about the art work.
This virtual exhibition will be closed on March 2022.

Users can search ukiyoe available via Web. An English search screen is available, but search terms must be in Japanese.

From ARC 浮世絵ポータルデータベース, this links to Hokusai's group of 103 once-lost drawings, rediscovered and acquired by the British Museum in 2019.

This website allows users to search ukiyoe images from multiple institutions, as well as upload an image to find the same ukiyoe at other institutions.

Provided by 立命館大学, this website provides a gateway to different ukiyoe databases and scholarly works on ukiyoe.

An index database for the nishikie collections owned by 東京大学史料編纂所, 静岡県立中央図書館, and 横浜開港資料館. Images are available for the collection held by 史料編纂所.