Ukiyo-e, often translated as "pictures of the floating world," refers to Japanese paintings and woodblock prints that originally depicted the cities' pleasure districts during the Edo Period, when the sensual attributes of life were encouraged amongst a tranquil existence under the peaceful rule of the Shoguns. These idyllic narratives not only document the leisure activities and climate of the era, they also depict the decidedly Japanese aesthetics of beauty, poetry, nature, spirituality, love, and sex.
The people and environments in which the higher classes emerged themselves became the popular subjects for ukiyo-e works. This included sumo wrestlers, courtesans, the actors of kabuki theatre, geishas and teahouse mistresses, warriors, and other characters from the literature and folklore of the time.
By combining uki for sadness and yo for life, the word ukiyo-e originally reflected the Buddhist concept of life as a transitory illusion, involving a cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth. But ironically, during the early Edo period, another ideograph which meant "to float," similarly pronounced as uki, came into usage, and the term became associated with wafting on life's worldly pleasures.

The structure of this album is based on a triangle and its reflection:
the opening and closing tracks are performed on solo bass, the 2nd and 4th tracks are bass/guitar, and the centerpiece is guitar only. The tracks are also working in the basic unit of threes time-wise, 3, 6. and 9 minutes in duration, then 6 and 3 again, and the total running time is about 27 minutes, which gives a numerological number 9, or 3 x 3....
beauty, poetry, nature, spirituality, love, and sex.
Welcome to the Floating World.