車浮代

Ukiyo Kuruma – Profile

Japanese Historical Novelist, Ukiyo-e Expert and Edo cooking researcher. Member of the International Ukiyo-e Society.

After graduating from Osaka University of Arts, Ukiyo Kuruma started her career as an art director. She studied scenario writing under great film director Kaneto Shindo to achieve her long-cherished dream of becoming a writer. Following her nomination as a finalist in the Japan Scenario Grand Prix, Ukiyo won the first prize in the Scenario Writer Contest in 2005. Her biography of Fudeko Ishii, a pioneering welfare activist in the Meiji Period, was made into a movie in 2007, starring actress Takako Tokiwa.

Ukiyo further developed her career in Japanese historical writing. Her 2014 best-seller Tsutaju no Oshie was the first novel to feature Tsutaya Jūzaburō, the protagonist of this year's NHK Taiga Drama UNBOUND. She has published seven books about him to date.

In addition to her historical publications, her deep interest in the lifestyles of metropolitan Edo (the former name of Tokyo) has inspired her to publish books on Edo-period cuisine and recipes.

Another specialty of Ukiyo Kuruma is ukiyo-e —Japanese wood block prints that were very popular during the Edo period (1603-1868). With her wide knowledge of the Edo culture, she gives lectures and seminars at adult colleges, focusing on ukiyo-e that depict the everyday lives of people during that time, including kabuki actors, sumo wrestlers, beautiful women, and ordinary people. Ukiyo is particularly interested in the fact that ukiyo-e prints had a decisive influence on European Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, including Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh. The eccentric compositions and unconventional techniques of ukiyo-e artists greatly astonished Europeans at the time, who were used to traditional, realistic paintings.

Ukiyo is engaged in other traditional Japanese arts, including haiku (short poems), kouta (ballads sung to shamisen, a traditional instrument), tea ceremony, and flower arrangement.

In 2024, Ukiyo opened an Edo-style rental kitchen studio called Ukiyo's Kitchen and broadcasts videos.