Ukiyo-e (浮世絵, literally "pictures of the floating world"^?) (Japanese pronunciation: [ukijo.e] or [ukijoꜜe]) is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints (or woodcuts) and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan.

Usually the word ukiyo is literally translated as "floating world" in English, referring to a conception of an evanescent world, impermanent, fleeting beauty and a realm of entertainments (kabuki, courtesans, geisha) divorced from the responsibilities of the mundane, everyday world; "pictures of the floating world", i.e. ukiyo-e, are considered a genre unto themselves.

The contemporary novelist Asai Ryōi, in his Ukiyo monogatari (浮世物語, "Tales of the Floating World", c. 1661^?), provides some insight into the concept of the floating world:

... Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; ... refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world...

Paul Binnie (born 1967) is a Scottish artist working in the Japanese tradition of woodblock printmaking. His work is reflective of the shin hanga artists of the early to mid-20th century, employing subjects such as landscapes, tattoos, and female beauties (bijin).

Paul Binnie was born in Alloa, Scotland in 1967 and studied art history at Edinburgh University and painting and etching at Edinburgh College of Art from 1985 to 1990. After taking his MA in 1990 he moved to Paris until his interest in Japanese Ukiyo-e prints took him to Japan in 1993. There he studied woodblock print carving and printing with the master Seki Kenji.

Binnie also began experimenting with kappazuri (stencil printing). His first stencil prints depicted tattooed figures, followed by actor portraits. By late 1995, Binnie left Seki’s studio to concentrate on his own work, primarily focusing on kabuki subjects, a genre which Binnie had begun to collect in earnest. He was increasingly interested in actor portraits by shin hanga artists such as Natori Shunsen (1886-1960) and Ota Masamitsu (1892-1975), and he also began to appreciate and collect landscape prints by artists such as Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) and Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950).