This set of prints is typical of a type common in 60s and 70s. Marketed through such means as newspaper Sunday supplements, they were aimed at such people at salarymen, teachers, and doctors.

This was the era following the first Tokyo Olympics, and middle class Japanese were becoming aware - through increased contact with visitors from overseas - just how much those foreigners were interested in the old ukiyo-e, something that the locals themselves had very little interest in.

It was to address such lack of knowledge that these prints sets were designed. This one is 'Themed' - picking up two of the four most popular ukiyo-e genres (nature and landscape; the other two being beauties and actors).

Only three designers are represented: Utamaro, Hokusai, and Hiroshige - these three being the people that the visitors most expected their hosts to know about ...

When these sets come onto the market today (their original purchasers having for the most part passed away), they are frequently encountered with at least one print missing. The original idea for these sets was to keep a frame in the room, and 'rotate' the prints through it regularly. But decades later - when the set was being sold off - nobody would realize that there was a print 'up on the wall' that should be re-united with its partners ...