Boer begeleidt hoveling op zwarte os before 1853

Utagawa Kunisada produced this woodblock print, 'Boer begeleidt hoveling op zwarte os', sometime in the 19th century. The print depicts a nobleman being led on an ox by a commoner, an inversion of the social hierarchy which would have had immediate appeal to the print-buying public. Known as Ukiyo-e, or ‘pictures of the floating world’, this art form flourished during the Edo period in Japan, corresponding to a time of relative peace and economic expansion. Ukiyo-e prints often portrayed scenes of everyday life, popular entertainment, and beautiful landscapes. The art form was patronized by the emerging merchant class, who had the means to consume art but were excluded from traditional forms of cultural patronage. The print’s creation and consumption depended on this new class and the social structures that defined it. To better understand art like this, historians might look to popular literature and theatre of the period, or to sociological studies of class and commerce. The meaning of art is always contingent on social and institutional context.