The Edo period (1603–1868) witnessed one of the great flowerings of Japanese art. In Obtaining Images, Timon Screech introduces the reader not only to important artists and their work, but also to the intellectual issues and concepts surrounding the production and consumption of art in Japan at that time. Rather than looking at art in the Edo period through the lens of European art, Screech contextualizes the making and use of painting and prints, elucidating how and why works were commissioned, where they were displayed and what special properties were attributed to them.