Reprint of the 1922 edition published by Dutton, New York, under title: Subjects portrayed in Japanese colour-prints.

Includes bibliographical references (page 377) and index.

"Ukiyoye means pictures of the floating or passing world; the school of Japanese popular color prints known by this name flourished in thousands of prints by hundreds of artists over a relatively brief period c. 1760-1825. Since then the prints, originally considered vulgar and sold for pennies on the streets, have gained fame as the medium of Hokusai, Hiroshige and others, whose glimpses of Japanese life in landscape and theatrical scenes have influenced the greatest western artists. In 1922 the English art collector and connoisseur Basil Stewart published his definitive discourse on this passing world. In discursive essays of unsurpassed acumen and charm, and in hundreds of illustrations, he amply demonstrated his prefatory remark that "an intelligent study of the subjects and scenes they illustrate will tell us more of the life, history, and character of Japan in the days when it was a closed book to the rest of the world, than any number of pages of print." A Guide to Japanese Prints and Their Subject Matter brings back into print Stewart's immense knowledge of and feeling for Japanese culture as seen through Ukiyoye. First published in a limited edition now extremely rare, Stewart's comprehensive, detailed coverage of innumerable prints provides today's collectors with the necessary means of identifying artists (many artists borrowed the name of their master) and verifying authenticity. The analysis of the typical themes and motifs of the multicolored woodcut prints brings the student and interested reader into the Japan depicted for the masses of theater-goers, workers and city dwellers who constituted the artists' audience." -- Publisher's description

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