Torii Kiyotada (Japanese, active c. 1716–51), The Main Gate, New Yoshiwara, c. 1745, hand-colored woodblock print; toku-oban yoko-e, beni-e, 43.4 × 63.9 cm (17 × 25 1/4 in.), Clarence Buckingham Collection, 1939.2152
A significant shift is underway this week in the Art Institute of Chicago’s print galleries! On June 24, The Floating World Emerges: Japanese Prints from the Clarence Buckingham Collection opens, inviting visitors to explore the museum’s fine ukiyo-e holdings in a fresh and celebratory presentation. Before the new show arrives, there is still time to catch Emerging from Darkness: Prints by Hamanishi Katsunori — the Japanese master’s hauntingly precise mezzotints are on view through June 22. Plan your visit to make the most of both!
The Floating World Emerges: Japanese Prints from the Clarence Buckingham Collection
June 24 – September 6, 2026
Gallery 107
The ideology that would become known as the floating world (ukiyo) developed following the great fire of 1657 in which vast portions of the city of Edo (now Tokyo) were destroyed.
Just a few years after that fire, in 1665, author Asai Ryōi described what this attitude was: “living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maples, singing songs, drinking wine, and diverting ourselves just in floating, floating, caring not a whit for the poverty staring us in the face, refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: This is what we call ukiyo.”
Pictures of the floating world (ukiyo-e) subsequently became essential portrayals of city life in the 17th century. Prints and paintings of women wearing elaborate kimonos appealed to urbanites’ sense of fashion and style, while depictions of Kabuki actors and their hedonistic existence provided excitement. Courtesans, who played a significant role in a society that glorified their appearance and glossed over their reality, were also a frequent ukiyo-e subject.
Prints were a profitable way to give the public the images they craved as mementos of their experiences or their fantasies. The appeal of ukiyo-e continued for almost 200 years, and the printing technology that developed as a result, especially color printing, reached heights unknown in the rest of the world.
This presentation brings together about 40 ukiyo-e prints, many given to the museum by a major collector and an early supporter of the Art Institute, Clarence Buckingham.
The Floating World Emerges: Japanese Prints from the Clarence Buckingham Collection is curated by Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Curator of Japanese Art, Arts of Asia.
To learn more, click here.
Hamanishi Katsunori (Japanese, born 1949), Spring – Canola Flowers Field, 2022, color mezzotint on wove paper; Ed. 2/50; One of a series of four prints: 69 × 135 cm (27 3/16 × 53 3/16 in.). Gift of Hamanishi Katsunori. © 2022 Hamanishi Katsunori
Emerging from Darkness: Prints by Hamanishi Katsunori
Closing Monday, June 22, 2026
Gallery 107
Over a long and distinguished career, Japanese artist Hamanishi Katsunori (born 1949) has focused on making mezzotint prints, perhaps the most demanding of all print techniques.
Mezzotints are known for their dark and atmospheric appearance. This is because the starting point for any mezzotint is the creation of a roughened surface, which produces a solid black background when printed. To draw the image that emerges from this dark background, the artist uses a series of burnishers and scrapers; the deepest gouges print as white areas on the finished print.
This presentation includes earlier, smaller-format works done without color, as well as more recent larger work that boast many hues. Among the earlier monochromatic prints is Hamanishi’s 1997 Viva Chicago series, which focuses on the city’s beloved public monuments like the Picasso and Miró sculptures. As the artist recalled, “When I first came here, I was unprepared for the impact this city would leave on my mind, such a vivid impression etched deep in my memory… . This is my ode to Chicago.”
The exhibition also celebrates several important gifts to the museum. Hamanishi’s 2022 Four Seasons series—shown at the museum for the first time—is a recent gift from the artist. Each work in the series is reminiscent of the panels of a folding screen and features seasonal floral imagery.
Many works in the show come from the 2013 gift to the museum from the Ninion and Sheldon Landy Collection, which gave the Art Institute the largest collection of Hamanishi’s prints in the world.
To learn more, click here.
