Glossary of Terms

Uchiwa: flat, round fan.

Uchiwa-e: a fan print, made to be mounted as a fan.

Uesugi Shigefusa: military lord of the Kamakura period; founder of the Uesugi family, members of which were advisers to the shoguns.

Uki-e (Floating pictures): painting in which a bird's-eye perspective is used to show the inside of a building or the whole of a landscape from above.

Ukiyo-e (Pictures of the floating world): prints and paintings illustrating the transient life, the "floating world" of the gay plebeian world of the Edo period (1600-1868).

Ukiyo-zôshi (Stories of the Floating World): a type of popular fiction of the period 1683-1783.

Unkoku school: founded by Unkoku Tôgan in the Momoyama period. Its members served the Môri clan as kakae-eshi (painters sponsored by a daimyo). Many of them lived in or near Hagi, Suô Province, the feudal capital of the clan. The style of painting was based on that of Sesshû. The school continued into the 18th century. The names of the artists usually begin with the character tô.

Urushi-e (Lacquer picture): Beni-e with the addition of glue to the pigments to give a lustrous finish, often sprinkled with metallic dust or mica.

Utagawa school: most prolific of the ukiyo-e schools. Founded by Utagawa Toyoharu in the late 18th century, it was continued by his pupils in the 19th century. Toyohiro and Toyokuni are among the best-known members.