“Ukiyo-e” (pictures of the floating world, “e” means “picture”) refers not to a technique but rather is a collective term for a genre of painting and printing, which portrays a conception of an evanescent world, removed from the responsibilities of the “mundane“ world, especially during the so-called Edo Period (Edo = Tokyo, 1603-1868).

A Schubertiade is a gathering for the purpose of playing Schubert’s music. The ending “-iade” derives from the Greek –iás meaning activity or competition e.g. Olympaide. It is linguistically possible to add the suffix to any composer’s name, but it is almost never done as it immediately sounds pretentious to say, organize a “Burt Bacharachiade” or whatever. I was intrigued by the idea of four samurai who play string quartets when the day’s work is done. I am indebted to Utamaro (1753 – 1806) and Kunisada (1786 – 1865) for the faces.

The silk fabric for the frame border of Schubertiad–e is extremely rare: it comes from a 100-year-old bolt which served as a kind of catalog contained dozens of samples of each design, whereby every fifth sample was numbered so that the customer (in this case most likely for export, since Arabic numbers are employed) could notate which designs were desired. If you look carefully you can see the catalog numbers in small circles on the borders of Schubertiad–e.