PREFACE

　A type of genre painting，most works of which were colored woodblock prints，portraying scenes from everyday life of the common people of Edo（today's Tokyo） and their manners and customs flourished from the early years of the Edo（1603-1867） to the first half of the Meiji period（1867-1912）． Its commonest themes were scenes from Yoshiwara，the well-known redlight district of Edo，and the kabuki.Thus those color prints came to be called ukiyoe，for in those days licensed quarters like Yoshiwara were referred to as ukiyo（the floating，i.e.evanescent，world）．
　Ukiyoe portraits of pretty courtesans，geisha，teashop waitresses，and even daughters of respectable families，as well as those of the actors of kabuki，which was the most popular form of entertainment in the days，enjoyed immense popularity among the common people，just as the stills of screen idols do today.
　Anticipating the taste and aspiration of the masses，popular ukiyoe artists created brilliant portraits of belles and actors，using gorgeous colors made available by the new technique of polychrome printing.Woodblock prints became so colorful that they were called nishikie（pictures beautiful as brocade），developing into a pictorial art without parallel in the world.
　The Portraits were representation of the common people's ideal of sensuous beauty-ravishing women after their fancy sitting or standing in ideally beautiful postures against the background of the typical situations of the everyday world of the time.Moreover，the delicate texture of Japanese paper on which they were printed subtly reflected the mood pervading the life of the age.
　The irresistible appeal of the unique coloring and feel of ukiyoe has fascinated the succeeding generations.
　One characteristic of ukiyoe is its remarkable realism.Manners and customs are portrayed with careful regard to the minutest detail，so that everyday life of the common people of Edo and the environment surrounding it are vividly and fully represented.To take an example，the realistic depiction of toothbrushing with ordinary toothpicks and tufted ones done every morning and of women staining their teeth with black dyes according to the custom of the time provides us moderns a vivid object lesson on the dental aspect of everyday life in the time.
　This book contains115large-size color prints selected out of the250odd collected by the Museum of the Nippon Dental University，Niigata.Most of them come from the collections of Dr.Minoru Nakahara，President of this university，and of Dr.Kei Enoki laboriously accumulated over many years.
　We have some misgivings about the extent to which modern photographic and printing technology can reproduce the original effect，but nevertheless we minimized the notes.It was because we desired that the reader appreciate the prints as they are.We hope he will regard this book as an album introducing an antique art and enjoy the portrayal of the life of the common people in Edo in its dental aspect.
　April，1980.
　Museum of the Nippon Dental University，School of Dentistry at Niigata