title: Ukiyo-e

text: During a prolonged period of civil war in the 16th century, a class of politically powerful merchants developed. These , the predecessors of the Edo period's , allied themselves with the court and had power over local communities; their patronage of the arts encouraged a revival in the classical arts in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In the early 17th century, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) unified the country and was appointed shōgun with supreme power over Japan. He consolidated his government in the village of Edo (modern Tokyo), and required the territorial lords to assemble there in alternate years with their entourages. The demands of the growing capital drew many male labourers from the country, so that males came to make up nearly seventy percent of the population. The village grew during the Edo period (1603–1867) from a population of 1800 to over a million in the 19th century.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The centralized shogunate put an end to the power of the and divided the population into four social classes, with the ruling samurai class at the top and the merchant class at the bottom. While deprived of their political influence, those of the merchant class most benefited from the rapidly expanding economy of the Edo period, and their improved lot allowed for leisure that many sought in the pleasure districts—in particular Yoshiwara in Edo—and collecting artworks to decorate their homes, which in earlier times had been well beyond their financial means. The experience of the pleasure quarters was open to those of sufficient wealth, manners, and education.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Woodblock printing in Japan traces back to the in 770 CE. Until the 17th century, such printing was reserved for Buddhist seals and images. Movable type appeared around 1600, but as the Japanese writing system required about 100,000 type pieces, hand-carving text onto woodblocks was more efficient. In Saga Domain, calligrapher Hon'ami Kōetsu and publisher combined printed text and images in an adaptation of "The Tales of Ise" (1608) and other works of literature. During the Kan'ei era (1624–1643) illustrated books of folk tales called ("orange-green books") were the first books mass-produced using woodblock printing. Woodblock imagery continued to evolve as illustrations to the genre of tales of hedonistic urban life in the new capital. The rebuilding of Edo following the Great Fire of Meireki in 1657 occasioned a modernization of the city, and the publication of illustrated printed books flourished in the rapidly urbanizing environment.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The term , which can be translated as "floating world", was homophonous with an ancient Buddhist term signifying "this world of sorrow and grief". The newer term at times was used to mean "erotic" or "stylish", among other meanings, and came to describe the hedonistic spirit of the time for the lower classes. Asai Ryōi celebrated this spirit in the novel (""Tales of the Floating World"", ):


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The earliest ukiyo-e artists came from the world of Japanese painting. Yamato-e painting of the 17th century had developed a style of outlined forms which allowed inks to be dripped on a wet surface and spread out towards the outlines—this outlining of forms was to become the dominant style of ukiyo-e.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Around 1661, painted hanging scrolls known as "Portraits of Kanbun Beauties" gained popularity. The paintings of the Kanbun era (1661–73), most of which are anonymous, marked the beginnings of ukiyo-e as an independent school. The paintings of Iwasa Matabei (1578–1650) have a great affinity with ukiyo-e paintings. Scholars disagree whether Matabei's work itself is ukiyo-e; assertions that he was the genre's founder are especially common amongst Japanese researchers. At times Matabei has been credited as the artist of the unsigned Hikone screen, a folding screen that may be one of the earliest surviving ukiyo-e works. The screen is in a refined Kanō style and depicts contemporary life, rather than the prescribed subjects of the painterly schools.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: In response to the increasing demand for ukiyo-e works, Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–1694) produced the first ukiyo-e woodblock prints. By 1672, Moronobu's success was such that he began to sign his work—the first of the book illustrators to do so. He was a prolific illustrator who worked in a wide variety of genres, and developed an influential style of portraying female beauties. Most significantly, he began to produce illustrations, not just for books, but as single-sheet images, which could stand alone or be used as part of a series. The Hishikawa school attracted a large number of followers, as well as imitators such as Sugimura Jihei, and signalled the beginning of the popularization of a new artform.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Torii Kiyonobu I and Kaigetsudō Ando became prominent emulators of Moronobu's style following the master's death, though neither was a member of the Hishikawa school. Both discarded background detail in favour of focus on the human figure—kabuki actors in the of Kiyonobu and the Torii school that followed him, and courtesans in the of Ando and his Kaigetsudō school. Ando and his followers produced a stereotyped female image whose design and pose lent itself to effective mass production, and its popularity created a demand for paintings that other artists and schools took advantage of. The Kaigetsudō school and its popular "Kaigetsudō beauty" ended after Ando's exile over his role in the Ejima-Ikushima scandal of 1714.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Kyoto native Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671–1750) painted technically refined pictures of courtesans. Considered a master of erotic portraits, he was the subject of a government ban in 1722, though it is believed he continued to create works that circulated under different names. Sukenobu spent most of his career in Edo, and his influence was considerable in both the Kantō and Kansai regions. The paintings of Miyagawa Chōshun (1683–1752) portrayed early 18th-century life in delicate colours. Chōshun made no prints. The Miyagawa school he founded in the early-18th century specialized in romantic paintings in a style more refined in line and colour than the Kaigetsudō school. Chōshun allowed greater expressive freedom in his adherents, a group that later included Hokusai.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Even in the earliest monochromatic prints and books, colour was added by hand for special commissions. Demand for colour in the early-18th century was met with prints hand-tinted with orange and sometimes green or yellow. These were followed in the 1720s with a vogue for pink-tinted and later the lacquer-like ink of the . In 1744, the were the first successes in colour printing, using multiple woodblocks—one for each colour, the earliest pink and vegetable green.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: A great self-promoter, Okumura Masanobu (1686–1764) played a major role during the period of rapid technical development in printing from the late 17th to mid-18th centuries. He established a shop in 1707 and combined elements of the leading contemporary schools in a wide array of genres, though Masanobu himself belonged to no school. Amongst the innovations in his romantic, lyrical images were the introduction of geometrical perspective in the genre in the 1740s; the long, narrow prints; and the combination of graphics and literature in prints that included self-penned haiku poetry.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Ukiyo-e reached a peak in the late 18th century with the advent of full-colour prints, developed after Edo returned to prosperity under Tanuma Okitsugu following a long depression. These popular colour prints came to be called , or "brocade pictures", as their brilliant colours seemed to bear resemblance to imported Chinese Shuchiang brocades, known in Japanese as . The first to emerge were expensive calendar prints, printed with multiple blocks on very fine paper with heavy, opaque inks. These prints had the number of days for each month hidden in the design, and were sent at the New Year as personalized greetings, bearing the name of the patron rather than the artist. The blocks for these prints were later re-used for commercial production, obliterating the patron's name and replacing it with that of the artist.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The delicate, romantic prints of Suzuki Harunobu (1725–1770) were amongst the first to realize expressive and complex colour designs, printed with up to a dozen separate blocks to handle the different colours and half-tones. His restrained, graceful prints invoked the classicism of poetry and painting. The prolific Harunobu was the dominant ukiyo-e artist of his time. The success of Harunobu's colourful from 1765 on led to a steep decline in demand for the limited palettes of and , as well as hand-coloured prints.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: A trend against the idealism of the prints of Harunobu and the Torii school grew following Harunobu's death in 1770. Katsukawa Shunshō (1726–1793) and his school produced portraits of kabuki actors with greater fidelity to the actors' actual features than had been the trend. Sometime-collaborators Koryūsai (1735 – ) and Kitao Shigemasa (1739–1820) were prominent depicters of women who also moved ukiyo-e away from the dominance of Harunobu's idealism by focusing on contemporary urban fashions and celebrated real-world courtesans and geisha. Koryūsai was perhaps the most prolific ukiyo-e artist of the 18th century, and produced a larger number of paintings and print series than any predecessor. The Kitao school that Shigemasa founded was one of the dominant schools of the closing decades of the 18th century.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: In the 1770s, Utagawa Toyoharu produced a number of perspective prints that demonstrated a mastery of Western perspective techniques that had eluded his predecessors in the genre. Toyoharu's works helped pioneer the landscape as an ukiyo-e subject, rather than merely a background for human figures. In the 19th century, Western-style perspective techniques were absorbed into Japanese artistic culture, and deployed in the refined landscapes of such artists as Hokusai and Hiroshige, the latter a member of the Utagawa school that Toyoharu founded. This school was to become one of the most influential, and produced works in a far greater variety of genres than any other school.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: While the late 18th century saw hard economic times, ukiyo-e saw a peak in quantity and quality of works, particularly during the Kansei era (1789–1791). The ukiyo-e of the period of the Kansei Reforms brought about a focus on beauty and harmony that collapsed into decadence and disharmony in the next century as the reforms broke down and tensions rose, culminating in the Meiji Restoration of 1868.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Especially in the 1780s, Torii Kiyonaga (1752–1815) of the Torii school depicted traditional ukiyo-e subjects like beauties and urban scenes, which he printed on large sheets of paper, often as multiprint horizontal diptychs or triptychs. His works dispensed with the poetic dreamscapes made by Harunobu, opting instead for realistic depictions of idealized female forms dressed in the latest fashions and posed in scenic locations. He also produced portraits of kabuki actors in a realistic style that included accompanying musicians and chorus.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: A law went into effect in 1790 requiring prints to bear a censor's seal of approval to be sold. Censorship increased in strictness over the following decades, and violators could receive harsh punishments. From 1799 even preliminary drafts required approval. A group of Utagawa-school offenders including Toyokuni had their works repressed in 1801, and Utamaro was imprisoned in 1804 for making prints of 16th-century political and military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Utamaro (–1806) made his name in the 1790s with his ("large-headed pictures of beautiful women") portraits, focusing on the head and upper torso, a style others had previously employed in portraits of kabuki actors. Utamaro experimented with line, colour, and printing techniques to bring out subtle differences in the features, expressions, and backdrops of subjects from a wide variety of class and background. Utamaro's individuated beauties were in sharp contrast to the stereotyped, idealized images that had been the norm. By the end of the decade, especially following the death of his patron Tsutaya Jūzaburō in 1797, Utamaro's prodigious output declined in quality, and he died in 1806.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Appearing suddenly in 1794 and disappearing just as suddenly ten months later, the prints of the enigmatic Sharaku are amongst ukiyo-e's best known. Sharaku produced striking portraits of kabuki actors, introducing a greater level of realism into his prints that emphasized the differences between the actor and the portrayed character. The expressive, contorted faces he depicted contrasted sharply with the serene, mask-like faces more common to artists such as Harunobu or Utamaro. Published by Tsutaya, Sharaku's work found resistance, and in 1795 his output ceased as mysteriously as it had appeared, and his real identity is still unknown. Utagawa Toyokuni (1769–1825) produced kabuki portraits in a style Edo townsfolk found more accessible, emphasizing dramatic postures and avoiding Sharaku's realism.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: A consistent high level of quality marks ukiyo-e of the late 18th-century, but the works of Utamaro and Sharaku often overshadow those other masters of the era. One of Kiyonaga's followers, Eishi (1756–1829), abandoned his position as painter for shōgun Tokugawa Ieharu to take up ukiyo-e design. He brought a refined sense to his portraits of graceful, slender courtesans, and left behind a number of noted students. With a fine line, Eishōsai Chōki (fl. 1786–1808) designed portraits of delicate courtesans. The Utagawa school came to dominate ukiyo-e output in the late Edo period.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Edo was the primary centre of ukiyo-e production throughout the Edo period. Another major centre developed in the Kamigata region of areas in and around Kyoto and Osaka. In contrast to the range of subjects in the Edo prints, those of Kamigata tended to be portraits of kabuki actors. The style of the Kamigata prints was little distinguished from those of Edo until the late 18th century, partly because artists often moved back and forth between the two areas. Colours tend to be softer and pigments thicker in Kamigata prints than in those of Edo. In the 19th century many of the prints were designed by kabuki fans and other amateurs.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The Tenpō Reforms of 1841–1843 sought to suppress outward displays of luxury, including the depiction of courtesans and actors. As a result, many ukiyo-e artists designed travel scenes and pictures of nature, especially birds and flowers. Landscapes had been given limited attention since Moronobu, and they formed an important element in the works of Kiyonaga and Shunchō. It was not until late in the Edo period that landscape came into its own as a genre, especially via the works of Hokusai and Hiroshige The landscape genre has come to dominate Western perceptions of ukiyo-e, though ukiyo-e had a long history preceding these late-era masters. The Japanese landscape differed from the Western tradition in that it relied more heavily on imagination, composition, and atmosphere than on strict observance of nature.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The self-proclaimed "mad painter" Hokusai (1760–1849) enjoyed a long, varied career. His work is marked by a lack of the sentimentality common to ukiyo-e, and a focus on formalism influenced by Western art. Among his accomplishments are his illustrations of Takizawa Bakin's novel "", his series of sketchbooks, the "Hokusai Manga", and his popularization of the landscape genre with "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji", which includes his best-known print, "The Great Wave off Kanagawa", one of the most famous works of Japanese art. In contrast to the work of the older masters, Hokusai's colours were bold, flat, and abstract, and his subject was not the pleasure districts but the lives and environment of the common people at work. Established masters Eisen, Kuniyoshi, and Kunisada also followed Hokusai's steps into landscape prints in the 1830s, producing prints with bold compositions and striking effects.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Though not often given the attention of their better-known forebears, the Utagawa school produced a few masters in this declining period. The prolific Kunisada (1786–1865) had few rivals in the tradition of making portrait prints of courtesans and actors. One of those rivals was Eisen (1790–1848), who was also adept at landscapes. Perhaps the last significant member of this late period, Kuniyoshi (1797–1861) tried his hand at a variety of themes and styles, much as Hokusai had. His historical scenes of warriors in violent combat were popular, especially his series of heroes from the (1827–1830) and (1847). He was adept at landscapes and satirical scenes—the latter an area rarely explored in the dictatorial atmosphere of the Edo period; that Kuniyoshia could dare tackle such subjects was a sign of the weakening of the shogunate at the time.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Hiroshige (1797–1858) is considered Hokusai's greatest rival in stature. He specialized in pictures of birds and flowers, and serene landscapes, and is best known for his travel series, such as "The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō" and "The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō", the latter a cooperative effort with Eisen. His work was more realistic, subtly coloured, and atmospheric than Hokusai's; nature and the seasons were key elements: mist, rain, snow, and moonlight were prominent parts of his compositions. Hiroshige's followers, including adopted son Hiroshige II and son-in-law Hiroshige III, carried on their master's style of landscapes into the Meiji era.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Following the deaths of Hokusai and Hiroshige and the Meiji Restoration of 1868, ukiyo-e suffered a sharp decline in quantity and quality. The rapid Westernization of the Meiji period that followed saw woodblock printing turn its services to journalism, and face competition from photography. Practitioners of pure ukiyo-e became more rare, and tastes turned away from a genre seen as a remnant of an obsolescent era. Artists continued to produce occasional notable works, but by the 1890s the tradition was moribund.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Synthetic pigments imported from Germany began to replace traditional organic ones in the mid-19th century. Many prints from this era made extensive use of a bright red, and were called ("red pictures"). Artists such as Yoshitoshi (1839–1892) led a trend in the 1860s of gruesome scenes of murders and ghosts, monsters and supernatural beings, and legendary Japanese and Chinese heroes. His "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon" (1885–1892) depicts a variety of fantastic and mundane themes with a moon motif. Kiyochika (1847–1915) is known for his prints documenting the rapid modernization of Tokyo, such as the introduction of railways, and his depictions of Japan's wars with China and with Russia. Earlier a painter of the Kanō school, in the 1870s Chikanobu (1838–1912) turned to prints, particularly of the imperial family and scenes of Western influence on Japanese life in the Meiji period.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Aside from Dutch traders, who had had trading relations dating to the beginning of the Edo period, Westerners paid little notice to Japanese art before the mid-19th century, and when they did they rarely distinguished it from other art from the East. Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg spent a year in the Dutch trading settlement Dejima, near Nagasaki, and was one of the earliest Westerners to collect Japanese prints. The export of ukiyo-e thereafter slowly grew, and at the beginning of the 19th century Dutch merchant-trader Isaac Titsingh's collection drew the attention of connoisseurs of art in Paris.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The arrival in Edo of American Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 led to the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, which opened Japan to the outside world after over two centuries of seclusion. Ukiyo-e prints were amongst the items he brought back to the United States. Such prints had appeared in Paris from at least the 1830s, and by the 1850s were numerous; reception was mixed, and even when praised ukiyo-e was generally thought inferior to Western works which emphasized mastery of naturalistic perspective and anatomy. Japanese art drew notice at the International Exhibition of 1867 in Paris, and became fashionable in France and England in the 1870s and 1880s. The prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige played a prominent role in shaping Western perceptions of Japanese art. At the time of their introduction to the West, woodblock printing was the most common mass medium in Japan, and the Japanese considered it of little lasting value.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Early Europeans promoters and scholars of ukiyo-e and Japanese art included writer Edmond de Goncourt and art critic Philippe Burty, who coined the term "Japonism". Stores selling Japanese goods opened, including those of Édouard Desoye in 1862 and art dealer Siegfried Bing in 1875. From 1888 to 1891 Bing published the magazine "Artistic Japan" in English, French, and German editions, and curated an ukiyo-e exhibition at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1890 attended by artists such as Mary Cassatt.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: American Ernest Fenollosa was the earliest Western devotee of Japanese culture, and did much to promote Japanese art—Hokusai's works featured prominently at his inaugural exhibition as first curator of Japanese art Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and in Tokyo in 1898 he curated the first ukiyo-e exhibition in Japan. By the end of the 19th century, the popularity of ukiyo-e in the West drove prices beyond the means of most collectors—some, such as Degas, traded their own paintings for such prints. Tadamasa Hayashi was a prominent Paris-based dealer of respected tastes whose Tokyo office was responsible for evaluating and exporting large quantities of ukiyo-e prints to the West in such quantities that Japanese critics later accused him of siphoning Japan of its national treasure. The drain first went unnoticed in Japan, as Japanese artists were immersing themselves in the classical painting techniques of the West.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Japanese art, and particularly ukiyo-e prints, came to influence Western art from the time of the early Impressionists. Early painter-collectors incorporated Japanese themes and compositional techniques into their works as early as the 1860s: the patterned wallpapers and rugs in Manet's paintings were inspired by the patterned kimono found in ukiyo-e pictures, and Whistler focused his attention on ephemeral elements of nature as in ukiyo-e landscapes. Van Gogh was an avid collector, and painted copies in oil of prints by Hiroshige and Eisen. Degas and Cassatt depicted fleeting, everyday moments in Japanese-influenced compositions and perspectives. ukiyo-e's flat perspective and unmodulated colours were a particular influence on graphic designers and poster makers. Toulouse-Lautrec's lithographs displayed his interest not only in ukiyo-e's flat colours and outlined forms, but also in their subject matter: performers and prostitutes. He signed much of this work with his initials in a circle, imitating the seals on Japanese prints. Other artists of the time who drew influence from ukiyo-e include Monet, La Farge, Gauguin, and Les Nabis members such as Bonnard and Vuillard. French composer Claude Debussy drew inspiration for his music from the prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige, most prominently in (1905). Imagist poets such as Amy Lowell and Ezra Pound found inspiration in ukiyo-e prints; Lowell published a book of poetry called "Pictures of the Floating World" (1919) on oriental themes or in an oriental style.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The travel sketchbook became a popular genre beginning about 1905, as the Meiji government promoted travel within Japan to have citizens better know their country. In 1915, publisher Shōzaburō Watanabe introduced the term ("new prints") to describe a style of prints he published that featured traditional Japanese subject matter and were aimed at foreign and upscale Japanese audiences. Prominent artists included Goyō Hashiguchi, called the "Utamaro of the Taishō period" for his manner of depicting women; Shinsui Itō, who brought more modern sensibilities to images of women; and Hasui Kawase, who made modern landscapes. Watanabe also published works by non-Japanese artists, an early success of which was a set of Indian- and Japanese-themed prints in 1916 by the English Charles W. Bartlett (1860–1940). Other publishers followed Watanabe's success, and some artists such as Goyō and Hiroshi Yoshida set up studios to publish their own work.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Artists of the ("creative prints") movement took control of every aspect of the printmaking process—design, carving, and printing were by the same pair of hands. Kanae Yamamoto (1882–1946), then a student at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, is credited with the birth of this approach. In 1904, he produced "Fisherman" using woodblock printing, a technique until then frowned upon by the Japanese art establishment as old-fashioned and for its association with commercial mass production. The foundation of the Japanese Woodcut Artists' Association in 1918 marks the beginning of this approach as a movement. The movement favoured individuality in its artists, and as such has no dominant themes or styles. Works ranged from the entirely abstract ones of Kōshirō Onchi (1891–1955) to the traditional figurative depictions of Japanese scenes of Un'ichi Hiratsuka (1895–1997). These artists produced prints not because they hoped to reach a mass audience, but as a creative end in itself, and did not restrict their print media to the woodblock of traditional ukiyo-e.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Prints from the late-20th and 21st centuries have evolved from the concerns of earlier movements, especially the movement's emphasis on individual expression. Screen printing, etching, mezzotint, mixed media, and other Western methods have joined traditional woodcutting amongst printmakers' techniques.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Early ukiyo-e artists brought with them a sophisticated knowledge of and training in the composition principles of classical Chinese painting; gradually these artists shed the overt Chinese influence to develop a native Japanese idiom. The early ukiyo-e artists have been called "Primitives" in the sense that the print medium was a new challenge to which they adapted these centuries-old techniques—their image designs are not considered "primitive". Many ukiyo-e artists received training from teachers of the Kanō and other painterly schools.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: A defining feature of most ukiyo-e prints is a well-defined, bold, flat line. The earliest prints were monochromatic, and these lines were the only printed element; even with the advent of colour this characteristic line continued to dominate. In ukiyo-e composition forms are arranged in flat spaces with figures typically in a single plane of depth. Attention was drawn to vertical and horizontal relationships, as well as details such as lines, shapes, and patterns such as those on clothing. Compositions were often asymmetrical, and the viewpoint was often from unusual angles, such as from above. Elements of images were often cropped, giving the composition a spontaneous feel. In colour prints, contours of most colour areas are sharply defined, usually by the linework. The aesthetic of flat areas of colour contrasts with the modulated colours expected in Western traditions and with other prominent contemporary traditions in Japanese art patronized by the upper class, such as in the subtle monochrome ink brushstrokes of zenga brush painting or tonal colours of the Kanō school of painting.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The colourful, ostentatious, and complex patterns, concern with changing fashions, and tense, dynamic poses and compositions in ukiyo-e are in striking contrast with many concepts in traditional Japanese aesthetics. Prominent amongst these, favours simplicity, asymmetry, and imperfection, with evidence of the passage of time; and values subtlety, humility, and restraint. Ukiyo-e can be less at odds with aesthetic concepts such as the racy, urbane stylishness of .


title: Ukiyo-e

text: ukiyo-e displays an unusual approach to graphical perspective, one that can appear underdeveloped when compared to European paintings of the same period. Western-style geometrical perspective was known in Japan—practised most prominently by the Akita ranga painters of the 1770s—as were Chinese methods to create a sense of depth using a homogeny of parallel lines. The techniques sometimes appeared together in ukiyo-e works, geometrical perspective providing an illusion of depth in the background and the more expressive Chinese perspective in the fore. The techniques were most likely learned at first through Chinese Western-style paintings rather than directly from Western works. Long after becoming familiar with these techniques, artists continued to harmonize them with traditional methods according to their compositional and expressive needs. Other ways of indicating depth included the Chinese tripartite composition method used in Buddhist pictures, where a large form is placed in the foreground, a smaller in the midground, and yet a smaller in the background; this can be seen in Hokusai's "Great Wave", with a large boat in the foreground, a smaller behind it, and a small Mt Fuji behind them.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: There was a tendency since early ukiyo-e to pose beauties in what art historian called a "serpentine posture", which involves the subjects' bodies twisting unnaturally while facing behind themselves. Art historian posited that this had its roots in traditional dance; countered that the poses were artistic licence taken by ukiyo-e artists, causing a seemingly relaxed pose to reach unnatural or impossible physical extremes. This remained the case even when realistic perspective techniques were applied to other sections of the composition.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Typical subjects were female beauties (""), kabuki actors (""), and landscapes. The women depicted were most often courtesans and geisha at leisure, and promoted the entertainments to be found in the pleasure districts. The detail with which artists depicted courtesans' fashions and hairstyles allows the prints to be dated with some reliability. Less attention was given to accuracy of the women's physical features, which followed the day's pictorial fashions—the faces stereotyped, the bodies tall and lanky in one generation and petite in another. Portraits of celebrities were much in demand, in particular those from the kabuki and sumo worlds, two of the most popular entertainments of the era. While the landscape has come to define ukiyo-e for many Westerners, landscapes flourished relatively late in the ukiyo-e's history.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Ukiyo-e prints grew out of book illustration—many of Moronobu's earliest single-page prints were originally pages from books he had illustrated. books of illustrations were popular and continued be an important outlet for ukiyo-e artists. In the late period, Hokusai produced the three-volume "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji" and the 15-volume "Hokusai Manga", the latter a compendium of over 4000 sketches of a wide variety of realistic and fantastic subjects.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Traditional Japanese religions do not consider sex or pornography a moral corruption in the sense of most Abrahamic faiths, and until the changing morals of the Meiji era led to its suppression, shunga erotic prints were a major genre. While the Tokugawa regime subjected Japan to strict censorship laws, pornography was not considered an important offence and generally met with the censors' approval. Many of these prints displayed a high level a draughtsmanship, and often humour, in their explicit depictions of bedroom scenes, voyeurs, and oversized anatomy. As with depictions of courtesans, these images were closely tied to entertainments of the pleasure quarters. Nearly every ukiyo-e master produced shunga at some point. Records of societal acceptance of shunga are absent, though Timon Screech posits that there were almost certainly some concerns over the matter, and that its level of acceptability has been exaggerated by later collectors, especially in the West.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Scenes from nature have been an important part of Asian art throughout history. Artists have closely studied the correct forms and anatomy of plants and animals, even though depictions of human anatomy remained more fanciful until modern times. Ukiyo-e nature prints are called , which translates as "flower-and-bird pictures", though the genre was open to more than just flowers or birds, and the flowers and birds did not necessarily appear together. Hokusai's detailed, precise nature prints are credited with establishing as a genre.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The Tenpō Reforms of the 1840s suppressed the depiction of actors and courtesans. Aside from landscapes and , artists turned to depictions of historical scenes, such as of ancient warriors or of scenes from legend, literature, and religion. The 11th century "Tale of Genji" and the 13th-century "Tale of the Heike" have been sources of artistic inspiration throughout Japanese history, including in ukiyo-e. Well-known warriors and swordsmen such as Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) were frequent subjects, as were depictions of monsters, the supernatural, and heroes of Japanese and Chinese mythology.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: From the 17th to 19th centuries Japan isolated itself from the rest of the world. Trade, primarily with the Dutch and Chinese, was restricted to the island of Dejima near Nagasaki. Outlandish pictures called were sold to tourists of the foreigners and their wares. In the mid-19th century, Yokohama became the primary foreign settlement after 1859, from which Western knowledge proliferated in Japan. Especially from 1858 to 1862, prints documented, with various levels of fact and fancy, the growing community of world denizens with whom the Japanese were now coming in contact; triptychs of scenes of Westerners and their technology were particularly popular.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Specialized prints included , deluxe, limited-edition prints aimed at connoisseurs, of which a five-line poem was usually part of the design; and printed hand fans, which often suffer from having been handled.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Ukiyo-e artists often made both prints and paintings; some specialized in one or the other. In contrast with previous traditions, ukiyo-e painters favoured bright, sharp colours, and often delineated contours with ink, an effect similar to the linework in prints. Unrestricted by the technical limitations of printing, a wider range of techniques, pigments, and surfaces were available to the painter. Artists painted with pigments made from mineral or organic substances, such as safflower, ground shells, lead, and cinnabar, and later synthetic dyes imported from the West such as Paris green and Prussian blue. Silk or paper hanging scrolls, handscrolls, or folding screens were the most common surfaces.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Ukiyo-e prints were the works of teams of artisans in several workshops; it was rare for designers to cut their own woodblocks. Labour was divided into four groups: the publisher, who commissioned, promoted, and distributed the prints; the artists, who provided the design image; the woodcarvers, who prepared the woodblocks for printing; and the printers, who made impressions of the woodblocks on paper. Normally only the names of the artist and publisher were credited on the finished print.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Ukiyo-e prints were impressed on hand-made paper manually, rather than by mechanical press as in the West. The artist provided an ink drawing on thin paper, which was pasted to a block of cherry wood and rubbed with oil until the upper layers of paper could be pulled away, leaving a translucent layer of paper that the block-cutter could use as a guide. The block-cutter cut away the non-black areas of the image, leaving raised areas that were inked to leave an impression. The original drawing was destroyed in the process.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Prints were made with blocks face up so the printer could vary pressure for different effects, and watch as paper absorbed the water-based ink, applied quickly in even horizontal strokes. Amongst the printer's tricks were embossing of the image, achieved by pressing an uninked woodblock on the paper to achieve effects, such as the textures of clothing patterns or fishing net. Other effects included burnishing rubbing the paper with agate to brighten colours; varnishing; overprinting; dusting with metal or mica; and sprays to imitate falling snow.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The ukiyo-e print was a commercial art form, and the publisher played an important role. Publishing was highly competitive; over a thousand publishers are known from throughout the period. The number peaked at around 250 in the 1840s and 1850s—200 in Edo alone—and slowly shrank following the opening of Japan until about 40 remained at the opening of the 20th century. The publishers owned the woodblocks and copyrights, and from the late 18th century enforced copyrights through the Picture Book and Print Publishers Guild. Prints that went through several pressings were particularly profitable, as the publisher could reuse the woodblocks without further payment to the artist or woodblock cutter. The woodblocks were also traded or sold to other publishers or pawnshops. Publishers were usually also vendors, and commonly sold each other's wares in their shops. In addition to the artist's seal, publishers marked the prints with their own seals—some a simple logo, others quite elaborate, incorporating an address or other information.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Print designers went through apprenticeship before being granted the right to produce prints of their own that they could sign with their own names. Young designers could be expected to cover part or all of the costs of cutting the woodblocks. As the artists gained fame, publishers usually covered these costs, and artists could demand higher fees.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: In pre-modern Japan, people could go by numerous names throughout their lives, their childhood personal name different from their name as an adult. An artist's name consisted of a —an artist surname—followed by an personal art name. The was most frequently taken from the school the artist belonged to, such as Utagawa or Torii, and the normally took a Chinese character from the master's art name—for example, many students of Toyokuni () took the from his name, including Kunisada () and Kuniyoshi (). The names artists signed to their works can be a source of confusion as they sometimes changed names through their careers; Hokusai was an extreme case, using over a hundred names throughout his 70-year career.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The prints were mass-marketed, and by the mid-19th century, the total circulation of a print could run into the thousands. Retailers and travelling sellers promoted them at prices affordable to prosperous townspeople. In some cases, the prints advertised kimono designs by the print artist. From the second half of the 17th century, prints were frequently marketed as part of a series, each print stamped with the series name and the print's number in that series. This proved a successful marketing technique, as collectors bought each new print in the series to keep their collections complete. By the 19th century, series such as Hiroshige's "Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō" ran to dozens of prints.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: While colour printing in Japan dates to the 1640s, early ukiyo-e prints used only black ink. Colour was sometimes added by hand, using a red lead ink in prints, or later in a pink safflower ink in prints. Colour printing arrived in books in the 1720s and in single-sheet prints in the 1740s, with a different block and printing for each colour. Early colours were limited to pink and green; techniques expanded over the following two decades to allow up to five colours. The mid-1760s brought full-colour prints made from ten or more woodblocks. To keep the blocks for each colour aligned correctly, registration marks called were placed on one corner and an adjacent side.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Printers first used natural colour dyes made from mineral or vegetable sources. The dyes had a translucent quality that allowed a variety of colours to be mixed from primary red, blue, and yellow pigments. In the 18th century, Prussian blue became popular, and was particularly prominent in the landscapes of Hokusai and Hiroshige, as was , where the printer produced gradations of colour or blended one colour into another. Cheaper and more consistent synthetic aniline dyes arrived from the West in 1864. The colours were harsher and brighter than traditional pigments. The Meiji government promoted their use as part of broader policies of Westernization.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Contemporary records of ukiyo-e artists are rare. The most significant is the (""Various Thoughts on ukiyo-e""), a collection of commentaries and artist biographies. Ōta Nanpo compiled the first, no-longer-extant version around 1790. The work did not see print during the Edo era, but circulated in hand-copied editions that were subject to numerous additions and alterations; over 120 variants of the are known.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Before World War II, the predominant view of ukiyo-e stressed the centrality of prints; this viewpoint ascribes ukiyo-e's founding to Moronobu. Following the war, thinking turned to the importance of ukiyo-e painting and making direct connections with 17th century paintings; this viewpoint sees Matabei as the genre's originator, and is especially favoured in Japan. This view had become widespread among Japanese researchers by the 1930s, but the militaristic government of the time suppressed it, wanting to emphasize a division between the scroll paintings associated with the court, and the prints associated with the sometimes anti-authoritarian merchant class.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: The earliest comprehensive historical and critical works on ukiyo-e came from the West. Ernest Fenollosa was Professor of Philosophy at the Imperial University in Tokyo from 1878, and was Commissioner of Fine Arts to the Japanese government from 1886. His "Masters of " of 1896 was the first comprehensive overview and set the stage for most later works with an approach to the history in terms of epochs: beginning with Matabei in a primitive age, it evolved towards a late-18th century golden age that began to decline with the advent of Utamaro, and had a brief revival with Hokusai and Hiroshige's landscapes in the 1830s. Laurence Binyon, the Keeper of Oriental Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, wrote an account in "Painting in the Far East" in 1908 that was similar to Fenollosa's, but placed Utamaro and Sharaku amongst the masters. Arthur Davison Ficke built on the works of Fenollosa and Binyon with a more comprehensive "Chats on Japanese Prints" in 1915. James A. Michener's "The Floating World" in 1954 broadly followed the chronologies of the earlier works, while dropping classifications into periods and recognizing the earlier artists not as primitives but as accomplished masters emerging from earlier painting traditions. For Michener and his sometime collaborator Richard Lane, ukiyo-e began with Moronobu rather than Matabei. Lane's "Masters of the Japanese Print" of 1962 maintained the approach of period divisions while placing ukiyo-e firmly within the genealogy of Japanese art. The book acknowledges artists such as Yoshitoshi and Kiyochika as late masters.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: 's "Traditional Woodblock Prints of Japan" of 1964 placed ukiyo-e artists in three periods: the first was a primitive period that included Harunobu, followed by a golden age of Kiyonaga, Utamaro, and Sharaku, and then a closing period of decline following the declaration beginning in the 1790s of strict sumptuary laws that dictated what could be depicted in artworks. The book nevertheless recognizes a larger number of masters from throughout this last period than earlier works had, and viewed ukiyo-e painting as a revival of painting. further refined Takahashi's analysis by identifying the decline as coinciding with the desperate attempts of the shogunate to hold on to power through the passing of draconian laws as its hold on the country continued to break down, culminating in the Meiji Restoration in 1868.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Ukiyo-e scholarship has tended to focus on the cataloguing of artists, an approach that lacks the rigour and originality that has come to be applied to art analysis in other areas. Such catalogues are numerous, but tend overwhelmingly to concentrate on a group of recognized geniuses. Little original research has been added to the early, foundational evaluations of ukiyo-e and its artists, especially with regard to relatively minor artists. While the commercial nature of ukiyo-e has always been acknowledged, evaluation of artists and their works has rested on the aesthetic preferences of connoisseurs and paid little heed to contemporary commercial success.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Standards for inclusion in the ukiyo-e canon rapidly evolved in the early literature. Utamaro was particularly contentious, seen by Fenollosa and others as a degenerate symbol of ukiyo-e's decline; Utamaro has since gained general acceptance as one of the form's greatest masters. Artists of the 19th century such as Yoshitoshi were ignored or marginalized, attracting scholarly attention only towards the end of the 20th century. Works on late-era Utagawa artists such as Kunisada and Kuniyoshi have revived some of the contemporary esteem these artists enjoyed. Many late works examine the social or other conditions behind the art, and are unconcerned with valuations that would place it in a period of decline.


title: Ukiyo-e

text: Novelist Jun'ichirō Tanizaki was critical of the superior attitude of Westerners who claimed a higher aestheticism in purporting to have discovered ukiyo-e. He maintained that ukiyo-e was merely the easiest form of Japanese art to understand from the perspective of Westerners' values, and that Japanese of all social strata enjoyed ukiyo-e, but that Confucian morals of the time kept them from freely discussing it, social mores that were violated by the West's flaunting of the discovery.


title: Bunk'd

text: Bunk'd is an American comedy television series created by Pamela Eells O'Connell that premiered on Disney Channel on July 31, 2015. The series is a spinoff of "Jessie" and for the first three seasons includes returning stars Peyton List, Karan Brar, and Skai Jackson, as well as Miranda May who has starred over the series' entire run. In December 2021, the series was renewed for a sixth season, subtitled Learning the Ropes, which premiered on June 10, 2022.


title: Bunk'd

text: Emma, Ravi, and Zuri leave New York City and head off to Moose Rump, Maine, to spend the summer at Camp Kikiwaka, where their parents met as teenagers. The Ross children and their new friends try their best to adapt to their lives at the camp, which was founded by Jedediah Swearengen and is named after a legendary Bigfoot-like creature that lives in the nearby forest. The camp has a notorious reputation of staying open despite violating various health code and safety regulations.


title: Bunk'd

text: In "We Didn't Start the Fire", several cabins are destroyed by a fire after a candle is left unattended. In "We Can't Bear It", the Ross children return with a new generation of campers to find the cabins were never rebuilt and Gladys ran away with the insurance money. These children include pageant girl Destiny, cautious boy Mateo, and Lou's messy second cousin Finn. The Ross children then convince their parents to buy Camp Kikiwaka and put them in charge. Eventually, Emma, Ravi, and Zuri agree to sell the camp to Lou while they go pursue their dream jobs. In "Who da Boss? Lou da Boss!" Lou is now in charge of Camp Kikiwaka. While Lou gains Ava and Noah as fellow counselors, Destiny, Mateo, and Finn gain Gwen as a fellow camper.


title: Bunk'd

text: The season five episode "R.V. Having Fun Yet" introduces a new character named Parker Preston who is the great-grandson of Jedediah's partner "Hatchet Joe" Preston who co-owned the Camp Kikiwaka in the past. Now Parker has arrived to become the co-owner and improve Camp Kikiwaka in appearance and camper attendance.


title: Bunk'd

text: In season six, Lou, Parker, Noah, and Destiny head to Dusty Tush, Wyoming to open up a new camp at a dude ranch which they purchased from The Marshall. There they encounter another new generation of campers, including fearless daredevil Winnie, enthusiastic cowboy-wannabe Bill, and video-game fanatic Jake.


title: Bunk'd

text: The series is a spinoff of "Jessie". "Bunk'd" was renewed for a second season by Disney Channel on February 29, 2016. The second season premiered on August 23, 2016.


title: Bunk'd

text: The series was renewed for a third season by Disney Channel on August 31, 2017. On June 1, 2018, it was announced that Peyton List, Karan Brar, Skai Jackson, and Miranda May would be returning for the third season and that Raphael Alejandro, Will Buie Jr., and Mallory Mahoney would be joining the cast. The third season premiered on Disney Channel on June 18, 2018. In March 2018, actress Skai Jackson stated in an interview that she was leaving Disney and that "Bunk'd" would end with the third season. In September 2018, it was confirmed in a report from "The Hollywood Reporter" that Peyton List would also leave the series after the conclusion of its third season.


title: Bunk'd

text: On November 15, 2018, it was announced by Disney Channel that the series had been renewed for a fourth season. Miranda May, Mallory James Mahoney, Raphael Alejandro, and Will Buie Jr. would return for the fourth season, with new unannounced cast also set to star alongside them, while Peyton List, Karan Brar, and Skai Jackson would not be returning to the series. Additionally, "Andi Mack"s Phil Baker and Erin Dunlap were to take over as executive producers in the fourth season. Production for the fourth season began in March 2019. On March 18, 2019, it was announced that production on the fourth season had commenced and that Israel Johnson, Shelby Simmons, and Scarlett Estevez had been added to the cast of the series. On May 10, 2019, it was announced that the fourth season would premiere on June 20, 2019.


title: Bunk'd

text: On February 24, 2020, it was announced by Disney Channel that the series had been renewed for a fifth season. Executive producer Erin Dunlap will serve as the sole showrunner for the fifth season. In addition, all of the cast from the fourth season, with the exception of Scarlett Estevez, is set to return. On August 26, 2020, it was announced that Trevor Tordjman from "Zombies" and "Zombies 2" would join the main cast for the fifth season as Parker Preston. Disney Channel announced on December 11, 2020, that the fifth season would premiere on January 15, 2021. On December 15, 2021, it was announced that the series was renewed for a sixth season, subtitled "Learning the Ropes", with Miranda May, Trevor Tordjman, Mallory James Mahoney, and Israel Johnson returning. New to the series are Shiloh Verrico as Winnie, Luke Busey as Jake, and Alfred Lewis as Bill. The sixth season premiered on June 10, 2022, and will have 30 episodes. On October 11, 2022, Disney Channel renewed the series for a seventh season.


title: Bunk'd

text: In Canada, the series premiered on Disney Channel Canada on the second day of the channel's launch on September 2, 2015. The series premiered on Disney Channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland on November 20, 2015, and premiered in Australia and New Zealand on January 14, 2016.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is the principal city of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area that includes New Hanover and Pender counties in southeastern North Carolina, which had a population of 301,284 at the 2020 census. Its historic downtown has a Riverwalk, developed as a tourist attraction in the late 20th century. In 2014, Wilmington's riverfront was ranked as the "Best American Riverfront" by readers of "USA Today". The National Trust for Historic Preservation selected Wilmington as one of its 2008 Dozen Distinctive Destinations.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: City residents live between the Cape Fear river and the Atlantic ocean, with four nearby beach communities just outside Wilmington: Fort Fisher, Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach and Kure Beach, all within half-hour drives from downtown Wilmington. The city is home to University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), which provides a wide variety of programs for undergraduates, graduate students, and adult learners, in addition to cultural and sports events open to the community.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Toward the end of the 19th century, Wilmington was a majority-black, racially integrated prosperous city, and the largest city in North Carolina. In the Wilmington massacre of 1898, white supremacists launched a coup that overthrew the legitimately elected local Fusionist government. They expelled opposition black and white leaders from the city, destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens built up since the Civil War, including the only black newspaper in the city, and killed an estimated 60 to more than 300 people. This coincided with broader efforts of disenfranchisement at the state level. Whereas North Carolina had 125,000 registered black voters in 1896, it had 6,000 black voters by 1902. By 1910, Charlotte overtook Wilmington as North Carolina's largest city.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: In 2003 the city was designated by the U.S. Congress as a "Coast Guard City," one of twenty-nine cities which currently bear that designation, and was the home port for the , a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter until 2020. On September 2, 2020, then-President Trump officially declared Wilmington as the first World War II Heritage City in the country. The World War II battleship , now a war memorial, is moored across from the downtown port area, and is open to the public for tours. Other attractions include the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science, The Children's Museum of Wilmington, and the Wilmington Hammerheads United Soccer Leagues soccer team.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington is also the home of EUE/Screen Gems Studios, the largest domestic television and movie production facility outside California. "Dream Stage 10," the facility's newest sound stage, is the third-largest in the United States. It houses the largest special-effects water tank in North America. After the studio's opening in 1984, Wilmington became a major center of American film and television production. Numerous movies in a range of genres and several television series have been produced here, including "Iron Man 3", "Super Mario Bros.", "The Conjuring", "The Crow", "We're the Millers", Fox's "Sleepy Hollow", "One Tree Hill", "Dawson's Creek", and NBC's "Revolution".


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The city was founded in the 1730s, and after going through a series of different names (New Carthage, New London, Newton), its name became Wilmington in 1740, named after Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The area along the river had been inhabited by various successive cultures of indigenous peoples for thousands of years. At the time of European encounter, historic Native Americans were members of tribes belonging to the Eastern Siouan family.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The ethnic European and African history of Wilmington spans more than two and a half centuries. In the early 16th century, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano commissioned by the king of France with a French crew was reportedly the first European to see this area, including the city's present site. The first permanent colonial settlement in the area was established in the 1720s by European settlers. In September 1732, a community was founded on land owned by John Watson on the Cape Fear River, at the confluence of its northwest and northeast branches. The settlement, founded by the first royal governor, George Burrington, was called "New Carthage," and then "New Liverpool;" it gradually took on the name "New Town" or "Newton". Governor Gabriel Johnston soon after established his government there for the North Carolina colony. In 1739 or 1740, the town was incorporated with a new name, Wilmington, in honor of Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Some early settlers of Wilmington came from the Albemarle and Pamlico regions, as well as from the colonies of Virginia and South Carolina, but most new settlers migrated from the Northern colonies, the West Indies, and Northern Europe. Many of the early settlers were indentured servants from Northern Europe. As the indentured servants gained their freedom and fewer could be persuaded to travel to North America because of improving conditions back home, the settlers imported an increasing number of slaves to satisfy the labor demand. By 1767, African slaves accounted for more than 62% of the population of the Lower Cape Fear region. Many worked in the port as laborers, and some in ship-related trades.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Naval stores and lumber fueled the region's economy, both before and after the American Revolution. During the Revolutionary War, the British maintained a garrison at Fort Johnston near Wilmington.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Due to Wilmington's commercial importance as a major port, it had a critical role in opposition to the British in the years leading up to the Revolution. The city had outspoken political leaders who influenced and led the resistance movement in North Carolina. The foremost of these was Wilmington resident Cornelius Harnett, who served in the General Assembly at the time, where he rallied opposition to the Sugar Act in 1764. When the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act the following year, designed to raise revenue for the Crown with a kind of tax on shipping, Wilmington was the site of an elaborate demonstration against it.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: On October 19, 1765, several hundred townspeople gathered in protest of the new law, burned an effigy of one town resident who favored the act, and toasted to "Liberty, Property, and No Stamp Duty." On October 31, another crowd gathered in a symbolic funeral of "Liberty". But before the effigy was buried, Liberty was found to have a pulse, and celebration ensued.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: William Houston of Duplin County was appointed stamp receiver for Cape Fear. When Houston visited Wilmington on business, still unaware of his appointment, he recounted,


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: "The Inhabitants immediately assembled about me & demanded a Categorical Answer whether I intended to put the Act relating [to] the Stamps in force. The Town Bell was rung[,] Drums [were] beating, Colours [were] flying and [a] great concourse of People [were] gathered together." For the sake of his own life, and "to quiet the Minds of the inraged and furious Mobb...," Houston resigned his position at the courthouse.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Governor William Tryon made attempts to mitigate the opposition, to no avail. On November 18, 1765, he pleaded his case directly to prominent residents of the area. They said the law restricted their rights. When the stamps arrived on November 28 on the H.M. Sloop "Diligence", Tryon ordered them to be kept on board. Shipping on the Cape Fear River was stopped, as were the functions of the courts.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Tryon, after having received his official commission as governor (a position he had assumed only after the death of Arthur Dobbs), was brought to Wilmington by Captain Constantine Phipps on a barge from the "Diligence", and "was received cordially by the gentlemen of the borough." He was greeted with the firing of seventeen pieces of artillery, and the New Hanover County Regiment of the North Carolina militia, who had lined the streets. This "warm welcome" was spoiled, however, after a dispute arose between Captain Phipps and captains of ships in the harbor regarding the display of their colors. The townspeople became infuriated with Phipps and threats were made against both sides. After Tryon harangued them for their actions, the townspeople gathered around the barrels of punch and ox he had brought as refreshments. The barrels were broken open, letting the punch spill into the streets; they threw the head of the ox into the pillory, and gave its body to the enslaved population. Because of the unrest, Tryon moved his seat of government to New Bern instead of Wilmington.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: On February 18, 1766, two merchant ships arrived without stamped papers at Brunswick Town. Each ship provided signed statements from the collectors at their respective ports of origin that there were no stamps available, but Captain Jacob Lobb of the British cruiser "Viper" seized the vessels. In response, numerous residents from southern counties met in Wilmington. The group organized as the Sons of Liberty and pledged to block implementation of the Stamp Act. The following day, as many as a thousand men, including the mayor and aldermen of Wilmington, were led by Cornelius Harnett to Brunswick to confront Tryon. The governor was unyielding but a mob retrieved the seized ships. They forced royal customs officers and public officials in the region to swear never to issue stamped paper. The Westminster Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: In the 1830s, citizens of Wilmington became eager to take advantage of railroad transportation. At this time, the shipping tonnage registered at Wilmington was 9,035. Plans were developed to build a railroad line from the capital, Raleigh, to Wilmington. When Raleigh citizens declined to subscribe in sufficient number to stock to raise money for the project, organizers changed the terminus to Weldon. When the railroad line was completed in 1840, it was the longest single line of railroad track in the world. The railroad also controlled a fleet of steamboats that ran between Wilmington and Charleston; these were used both for passenger travel and transportation of freight. Regular boat lines served Fayetteville, and packet lines traveled to northern ports. The city was a main stopover point, contributing greatly to its commerce.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: By mid-century, the churchyard of St. James Episcopal Church and other town cemeteries had become filled with graves. On November 16, 1853, a group of citizens, organized as "The Proprietors of the Wilmington Cemetery," was formed to develop a new cemetery. Sixty-five acres of land around Burnt Mill Creek was chosen as the site for what would be called Oakdale Cemetery. It was the first rural cemetery in North Carolina. The cemetery's first interment, on February 6, 1855, was six-year-old Annie deRosset. Many remains from St. James churchyard were relocated to the new cemetery.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Wilmington Gas Light Company was established in 1854. Soon after, street lights were powered by gas made from lightwood and rosin, replacing the old street oil lamps. On December 27, 1855, the first cornerstone was laid and construction began on a new City Hall. A grant from the Thalian Association funded the attached opera house, named Thalian Hall. In 1857 the city opened its first public school, named the "Union Free School", on 6th Street between Nun and Church streets, serving white students.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington had a black majority population before the Civil War. While most were slaves, the city had a significant community of free people of color, who developed businesses and trades. For a period up to Nat Turner's Rebellion, they had been allowed to vote, carry arms and serve in the militia. Fears after the rebellion resulted in the state legislature passing laws to restrict the rights of free blacks.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: During the Civil War, the port was the major base for Confederate and privately owned blockade runners, which delivered badly needed supplies from England. The Union mounted a blockade to reduce the goods received by the South. The city was captured by Union forces in the Battle of Wilmington in February 1865, approximately one month after the fall of Fort Fisher had closed the port. As nearly all the military action took place some distance from the city, numerous antebellum houses and other buildings survived the war years.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: During the Reconstruction era, former free blacks and newly emancipated freedmen built a community in the city. About 55% of its residents were black people. At the time, Wilmington was the largest city and the economic capital of the state.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Three of the city's aldermen were black. Black people were also in positions of justice of the peace, deputy clerk of court, street superintendent, coroners, policemen, mail clerks, and mail carriers.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: At the time, black people accounted for over 30% of Wilmington's skilled craftsmen, such as mechanics, carpenters, jewelers, watchmakers, painters, plasterers, plumbers, stevedores, blacksmiths, masons, and wheelwrights. In addition, blacks owned 10 of the city's 11 restaurants and were 90% of the city's 22 barbers. There were more black bootmakers/shoemakers than white ones, and half of the city's tailors were black. Lastly, two brothers, Alexander and Frank Manly, owned the "Wilmington Daily Record", one of the few black newspapers in the state, which was reported to be the only black daily newspaper in the country.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: In the 1890s, a coalition of Republicans and Populists had gained state and federal offices. The Democrats were determined to reassert their control. There was increasing violence around elections in this period, as armed white paramilitary insurgents, known as Red Shirts, worked to suppress black and Republican voting. White Democrats regained control of the state legislature and sought to impose white supremacy, but some blacks continued to be elected to local offices.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 (formerly and inaccurately called a race riot) occurred as a result of the racially charged political conflict that had occurred in the decades after the Civil War and efforts by white Democrats to reestablish white supremacy and overturn black voting. In 1898, a cadre of white Democrats, professionals and businessmen, planned to overthrow the city government if their candidates were not elected. Two days after the election, in which a white Republican was elected mayor and both white and black aldermen were elected, more than 1500 white men (led by Democrat Alfred M. Waddell, an unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate in 1896) attacked and burned the only black daily newspaper in the state and ran off the new officers. They overthrew the legitimately elected municipal government. Waddell and his men forced the elected Republican city officials to resign at gunpoint and replaced them with men selected by leading white Democrats. Waddell was elected mayor by the newly seated board of aldermen that day. Prominent African Americans and white Republicans were banished from the city in the following days. This is the only such coup d'état in United States history.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Whites attacked and killed an estimated 10–100 blacks. No whites died in the violence. As a result of the attacks, more than 2100 blacks permanently left the city, leaving a hole among its professional and middle class. The demographic change was so large that the city became majority white, rather than the majority black it was before the white Democrats' coup.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Following these events, the North Carolina legislature passed a new constitution that raised barriers to voter registration, imposing requirements for poll taxes and literacy tests that effectively disfranchised most black voters, following the example of the state of Mississippi. Blacks were essentially excluded from the political system until after the enactment of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington is home to the Bijou theater, which began as a tent in 1904 and progressed to a permanent structure in 1906. It operated until 1956, making it the oldest movie theater in the state and one of the oldest, continuously-running theater in the country. In 1910, Charlotte passed Wilmington to become North Carolina's largest city. In the Mid 20th Century, efforts to preserve many historic building began. Due to this, many Historic buildings listed as National Register of Historic Places. Around the '80s, the city was used for filming of many horror films like Blue Velvet in 1984 and I Know What You Did Last Summer in 1997. In 1990, the final extension of Interstate 40 in North Carolina was opened and officially connected Wilmington to the Interstate Highway System via Raleigh.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: During World War II, Wilmington was the home of the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company. The shipyard was created as part of the U.S. government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Workers built 243 ships in Wilmington during the five years the company operated.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Three prisoner-of-war (POW) camps operated in the city from February 1944 through April 1946. At their peak, the camps held 550 German prisoners. The first camp was located on the corner of Shipyard Boulevard and Carolina Beach Road; it was moved downtown to Ann Street, between 8th and 10th avenues, when it outgrew the original location. A smaller contingent of prisoners was assigned to a third site, working in the officers' mess and doing grounds keeping at Bluethenthal Army Air Base, which is now Wilmington International Airport.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: During the '90s, Wilmington began to grow rapidly, partially due to the film industry and the completion of I-40. The city successfully annexed the areas of Seagate in 1998 and Masonboro in 2000. The annexation of Monkey Junction was stopped in 2012 by the North Carolina House of Representatives after local backlash. In 2017, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality found that the Cape Fear River had been polluted by a chemical called GenX, discharged by a Chemours plant near Fayetteville, NC. In 2020, President Donald Trump designated Wilmington to be the first WWII Heritage city in the country due to the city's contribution during the war.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Audubon Trolley Station, Brookwood Historic District, Carolina Heights Historic District, Carolina Place Historic District, City Hall/Thalian Hall, Delgrado School, Federal Building and Courthouse, Fort Fisher, Gabriel's Landing, William Hooper School (Former), Market Street Mansion District, Masonboro Sound Historic District, Moores Creek National Battlefield, Sunset Park Historic District, "USS NORTH CAROLINA" (BB-55) National Historic Landmark, James Walker Nursing School Quarters, Westbrook-Ardmore Historic District, Wilmington Historic District, and Wilmington National Cemetery are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington is located at . It is the eastern terminus of Interstate 40, an east-west freeway that ends 2,554 miles away at Barstow, California, where it joins I-15, the Gateway to Southern California. This road passes through many major cities and state capitals along the way.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (1.16%) is water.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wrightsville Beach is a common destination in the Wilmington area. Carolina and Kure beaches also add to the city's beach attractions.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Abandoned warehouses on downtown's northern end have been recently demolished making room for multimillion dollar projects, such as what was the World Headquarters of Pharmaceutical Product Development (now Thermo Fisher Scientific) and tallest building in Wilmington at 228 feet, a state-of-the-art convention center, Live Oak Bank Pavilion, Pier 33 Apartments, and The Strands houseboat community in Port City Marina.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Between 2006 and 2008, crime rates, as reported through the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports, decreased in 6 of the 8 reported categories.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington has an increasing problem with gang violence and on October 15, 2013, the WPD and NHC sheriff's department created a joint task force to combat gang violence. Just a day later the city council approved $142,000 in funding for a gang investigative unit.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: As of the 2020 United States census, there were 115,451 people, 54,673 households, and 27,131 families residing in the city.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: According to 2013 census estimates, there were 112,067 people and 47,003 households in the city. The population density was 2,067.8 people per square mile (714.2/km)and there were 53,400 housing units. The racial composition of the city was: 73.5% White, 19.9% Black or African American, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino American, 1.2% Asian American, 0.5% Native American, 0.1% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: There were 34,359 households, out of which 20.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.5% were married couples living together, 14.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.5% were non-families. 36.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10 and the average family size was 2.77.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 18.4% under the age of 18, 17.2% from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 15.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.0 males.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The median income for a household in the city was $31,099, and the median income for a family was $41,891. Males had a median income of $30,803 versus $23,423 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,503. About 13.3% of families and 19.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.9% of those under age 18 and 12.0% of those age 65 or over.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Less than half of Wilmington's population is religiously affiliated (47.30%), with the majority of practitioners being Christian. The two largest Christian denominations in Wilmington are Protestant: Baptists (14.66%) and Methodists (8.29%), followed by Roman Catholics (7.42%). There are also a significant number of Presbyterians (3.19%), Episcopalians (2.30%), Pentecostals (1.45%), and Lutherans (1.32%). Other Christian denominations make up 7.02%, and the Latter-Day Saints have 0.90%. Much smaller is the proportion of residents who follow Islam (0.46%), and Judaism (0.25%). A small percentage of people practice Eastern religions (0.04%).


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington has significant historical religious buildings, such as the Basilica Shrine of St. Mary and the Temple of Israel.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Wilmington International Airport (ILM) serves the area with commercial air service provided by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Avelo Airlines. American Airlines carries a large share of the airport's traffic, and therefore flies the largest of the aircraft in and out of the airport. The airport serves over 930,000 travelers per year. The airport is also home to two fixed-base operations (FBOs) that currently house over 100 private aircraft. The airport maintains a separate International Terminal providing a full service Federal Inspection Station to clear international flights. This includes U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Immigration. The airport is 4 miles from downtown and is served by Wave Transit buses.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Public transit in the area is provided by the Cape Fear Public Transportation Authority, which operates fixed bus routes, shuttles, and a free downtown trolley under the brand name Wave Transit. A daily intercity bus service to Raleigh is provided by Greyhound Lines. Wilmington is also served by Amtrak Thruway bus connections to Wilson, North Carolina where connections can be made with Amtrak's "Carolinian" and "Palmetto." The city's Union Station last had passenger train service in 1968 with the Seaboard Coast Line's predecessor version of the "Palmetto." The Seaboard Air Line's station last had service in 1958, with a daily train to Charlotte via Hamlet.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The NCDOT "Cape Fear Run" bicycle route connects Apex to Wilmington and closely parallels the RUSA 600 km brevet route.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The City of Wilmington offers transient docking facilities in the center of Downtown Wilmington along the Cape Fear River approximately from the Intracoastal Waterway. The river depth in the run up from the ICW is in excess of . Taxicab services are available from several vendors, however, the City's Taxi Commission keeps meter rates artificially low. In 2021, regulations were eased to help the taxi industry compete with other companies like Uber and Lyft.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Gary Shell Cross-City Trail is primarily a multi-use trail that provides bicycle and pedestrian access to numerous recreational, cultural and educational destinations in Wilmington. The Gary Shell Cross-City Trail provides bicycle and pedestrian connection from Wade Park, Halyburton Park and Empie Park to the Heide-Trask Drawbridge at the Intracoastal Waterway. It also connects to the River to Sea Bikeway and the under-construction Central College Trail and Greenville Loop Trail.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington's industrial base includes electrical, medical, electronic and telecommunications equipment; clothing and apparel; food processing; paper products; nuclear fuel; and pharmaceuticals. Wilmington is part of North Carolina's Research coast, adjacent to the Research Triangle Park in Durham, NC.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Also important to Wilmington's economy is tourism due to its close proximity to the ocean and vibrant nightlife.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Located on the Cape Fear River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean, Wilmington is a sizable seaport, including private marine terminals and the North Carolina State Ports Authority's Port of Wilmington.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington is home to the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, the oldest Chamber in North Carolina, organized in 1853. Companies with their headquarters in Wilmington include Live Oak Bank and HomeInsurance.com.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: According to the City's 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: New Hanover Regional Medical Center is a hospital in Wilmington. It was established in 1967 as a public hospital, and it was the first hospital in the city to admit patients of all races. It was operated by New Hanover County. In February 2021 Novant Health, a nonprofit private organization, acquired the hospital.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The city supports a very active calendar with its showcase theater, Thalian Hall, hosting about 250 events annually. The complex has been in continuous operation since it opened in 1858 and houses three performance venues, the Main Stage, the Grand Ballroom, and the Studio Theater.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Hannah Block Historic USO/Community Arts Center, 120 S. Second Street in historic downtown Wilmington, is a multiuse facility owned by the City of Wilmington and managed by the Thalian Association, the Official Community Theater of North Carolina. Here, five studios are available to nonprofit organizations for theatrical performances, rehearsals, musicals, recitals and art classes. For more than half a century, the Hannah Block Historic USO Building has facilitated the coming together of generations, providing children with programs that challenge them creatively, and enhance the quality of life for residents throughout the region.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Hannah Block Second Street Stage is home to the Thalian Association Children's Theater. It is one of the main attractions at the Hannah Block Community Arts Center. The theater seats 200 and is used as a performance venue by community theater groups and other entertainment productions.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The University of North Carolina at Wilmington College of Arts and Science departments of Theatre, Music and Art share a state-of-the-art, $34 million Cultural Arts Building, which opened in December 2006. The production area consists of a music recital hall, art gallery, and two theaters. Sponsored events include 4 theater productions a year.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Brooklyn Arts Center at St. Andrews is a 125-year-old building on the corner of North 4th and Campbell St in downtown Wilmington. The Brooklyn Arts Center at Saint Andrews (BAC) is on the National Register of Historic Places. The BAC is used for weddings, concerts, fundraisers, art shows, vintage flea markets, and other community-driven events.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington is home to the Wilmington Conservatory of Fine Arts, a studio for foundlings. The Wilmington Conservatory of Fine Arts is the only studio in the region to offer Progressing Ballet Technique™ instruction from two certified instructors. The Conservatory is also host to Turning Pointe Dance Company, a faith-based dance company, which performs artistic pieces such as "Pinocchio" for the Wilmington Community.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington is home to EUE/Screen Gems Studios. Its prominent place in the cinema throughout the '80s and the '90s earned the city the moniker "Hollywood East". Popular television series like "Dawson's Creek", "One Tree Hill", "Sleepy Hollow", "SIX", "Good Behavior", "Eastbound and Down" and "Under The Dome" were filmed at the studio and on location throughout the city. Movies shot in Wilmington include "Maximum Overdrive" (1986), "Crimes of the Heart" (1986), "Year of the Dragon" (1985), "Blue Velvet" (1986), "King Kong Lives" (1986), "Hiding Out" (1987), "Raw Deal" (1986), "Track 29" (1988), "Weeds" (1987), "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (1990), "The Crow" (1994), "Silver Bullet" (1985), "Firestarter" (1984), "Iron Man 3", "A Walk to Remember",


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: "We're the Millers", "The Longest Ride" and "The Choice". Actor Brandon Lee was killed in an accidental shooting during the filming of "The Crow".


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Since 1995, Wilmington hosts an annual, nationally recognized, independent film festival called "Cucalorus." It is the keystone event of The Cucalorus Film Foundation, a non-profit organization. The Foundation also sponsors weekly screenings, several short documentary projects, and the annual Kids Festival, with hands on film-making workshops.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Cape Fear Independent Film Network also hosts a film festival annually, and the Wilmington Jewish Film Festival also takes place yearly. For several years Wilmington was also the location of fan conventions for One Tree Hill, reuniting the cast and drawing tourists to the city.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: In 2014, Governor Pat McCrory decided not to renew the film incentives, which ended up taking a massive toll on not just Wilmington's but North Carolina's entire film industry. As a result, most productions and film businesses moved to Atlanta, Georgia. As of 2017, there have been attempts to bring the industry back to North Carolina via the North Carolina Film and Entertainment Grant. This grant designates $31 million per fiscal year (Jul 1 – Jun 30) in film incentives.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Now rare, an early edition of the Scottish poet Robert Burns's "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" was printed by Bonsal and Niles of Market Street, Baltimore in 1804.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Chamber Music Wilmington was founded in 1995 and presents its four-concert "Simply Classical" series every season. The concerts are performed by world-class chamber musicians and are held at UNCW's Beckwith Recital Hall.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Wilmington Symphony Orchestra was established in 1971 and offers throughout the year a series of five classical performances, and a Free Family Concert.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: One of the largest DIY festivals, the Wilmington Exchange Festival, occurs over a period of 5 days around Memorial Day each year. It is currently in its 13th year.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Celebrating its 37th year, February 2 thru 4, 2017, the North Carolina Jazz Festival is a three-day traditional jazz festival that features world-renowned jazz musicians.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Cape Fear Blues Society is a driving force behind blues music in Wilmington. The organization manages, staffs and sponsors weekly Cape Fear Blues Jams and the annual Cape Fear Blues Challenge talent competition (winners travel to Memphis TN for the International Blues Challenge). Its largest endeavor is the Cape Fear Blues Festival, an annual celebration that showcases local, regional and national touring blues artists performing at a variety of events and venues, including the Cape Fear Blues Cruise, Blues Workshops, an All-Day Blues Jam, and numerous live club shows. Membership in the CFBS is open to listeners and musicians alike.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Second and Orange Street USO Club was erected by the Army Corps of Engineers at a cost of $80,000. Along with an identical structure on Nixon Street for African-American servicemen, it opened in December 1941, the same month that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. From 1941 to 1945, the USO hosted 35,000 uniformed visitors a week. Recently renovated with sensitivity to its historic character, the Hannah Block Historic USO (HBHUSO) lobby serves as a museum where World War II memorabilia and other artifacts are displayed. The building itself was rededicated in Ms. Block's name in 2006 and restored to its 1943 wartime character in 2008. The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The World War II Wilmington Home Front Heritage Coalition, an all volunteer 501(c)(3) preservation organization, is the de facto preservationist of the building's history and maintains the home front museum.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Wilmington is host to many annual festivals, including, most notably, the Azalea Festival. The Azalea Festival, sponsored by the Cape Fear Garden Club, features a garden tour, historic home tour, garden party, musical performances, a parade, and a fireworks show. It takes places every year in April.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The "Star-News" is Wilmington's daily newspaper; read widely throughout the Lower Cape Fear region and now owned by Gannett, following its merger with the Star's previous owner, GateHouse Media. A daily online newspaper, Port City Daily (portcitydaily.com), is owned by Local Voice Media. Two historically black newspapers are distributed and published weekly: "The Wilmington Journal" and "The Challenger Newspapers." "Encore Magazine" is a weekly arts and entertainment publication.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Wilmington television market is ranked 130 in the United States, and is the smallest DMA in North Carolina. The broadcast stations are as follows:


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: On September 8, 2008, at noon, WWAY, WECT, WSFX, WILM-LP and W51CW all turned off their analog signals, making Wilmington the first market in the nation to go digital-only as part of a test by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to iron out transition and reception concerns before the nationwide shutoff. Wilmington was chosen as the test market because the area's digital channel positions will remain unchanged after the transition. As the area's official conduit of emergency information, WUNJ did not participate in the early analog switchoff, and kept their analog signal on until the national digital switchover date of June 12, 2009. W47CK did not participate due to its low-power status; FCC rules currently exempt low-powered stations from the 2009 analog shutdown. WILM-LP and W51CW chose to participate, even though they are exempt as LPTV stations.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Despite Tropical Storm Hanna making landfall southwest of Wilmington two days before (September 6), the switchover continued as scheduled. The ceremony was marked by governmental and television representatives flipping a large switch (marked with the slogan "First in Flight, First in Digital") from analog to digital.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Wilmington Sharks are a Coastal Plain League (CPL) baseball team in Wilmington that was founded in 1997 and was among the charter organizations when the CPL was formed that same year. The roster is made up of top collegiate baseball players fine-tuning their skills using wood bats to prepare for professional baseball. Their stadium is located at Buck Hardee Field at Legion Stadium.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Wilmington Sea Dawgs are a Tobacco Road Basketball League (TRBL) team that began its inaugural season with the American Basketball Association (ABA) in November 2006 and have also played in the Premier Basketball League, and the Continental Basketball League.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Wilmington Hammerheads are a professional soccer team based in Wilmington. They were founded in 1996 and played in the United Soccer Leagues Second Division. Their stadium was the Legion Stadium. After the 2009 season, the USL discontinued their relationship with the franchise owner Chuck Sullivan. The Hammerheads franchise returned in 2011.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The University of North Carolina Wilmington sponsors 19 intercollegiate sports and has held Division 1 membership in the NCAA since 1977. UNCW competes in the Colonial Athletic Association and has been a member since 1984.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The University of North Carolina Wilmington is also home to the Seamen Ultimate Frisbee team. The team won the National Championship in 1993 and most recently qualified for the USA Ultimate College Nationals tournament in 2014


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The Cape Fear Rugby Football Club is an amateur rugby club playing in USA Rugby South Division II. They were founded in 1974 and hosts the annual Cape Fear Sevens Tournament held over July 4 weekend; hosting teams from all over the world. They own their own rugby pitch located at 21st and Chestnut St.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: Off and on, from 1900 to 2001, Wilmington has been home to a professional minor league baseball team. The Wilmington Pirates, a Cincinnati Reds farm team, were one of the top clubs in the Tobacco State League from 1946–50. Most recently the Wilmington Waves, a Class A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, played in the South Atlantic League. Former All Star catcher Jason Varitek played for Wilmington's Port City Roosters in 1995 and 1996. In 1914 the Philadelphia Phillies held spring training in Wilmington.


title: Wilmington, North Carolina

text: The beach near Wilmington, NC is home to the annual O’Neil/Sweetwater Pro-Am and Music Festival, the second largest surfing contest on the East Coast.


title: Manual transmission

text: A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission system, where gear changes require the driver to manually select the gears by operating a gear stick and clutch (which is usually a foot pedal for cars or a hand lever for motorcycles).


title: Manual transmission

text: Early automobiles used "sliding-mesh" manual transmissions with up to three forward gear ratios. Since the 1950s, "constant-mesh" manual transmissions have become increasingly commonplace and the number of forward ratios has increased to 5-speed and 6-speed manual transmissions for current vehicles.


title: Manual transmission

text: The alternative to a manual transmission is an automatic transmission; common types of automatic transmissions are the hydraulic automatic transmission (AT), and the continuously variable transmission (CVT), whereas the automated manual transmission (AMT) and dual-clutch transmission (DCT) are internally similar to a conventional manual transmission, but are shifted automatically.


title: Manual transmission

text: Alternately, there are transmissions which facilitate automatic clutch operation, but the driver's input is still required to manually change gears; namely semi-automatic transmissions. These systems are based on the design of a conventional manual transmission, with a gear shifter, and are mechanically similar to a conventional manual transmission, with the driver's control and input still required for manually changing gears (like with a standard manual transmission), but the clutch system is completely automated, and the mechanical linkage for the clutch pedal is completely replaced by an actuator, servo, or solenoid and sensors, which operate the clutch system automatically, when the driver touches or moves the gearshift. This removes the need for a physical clutch pedal.


title: Manual transmission

text: A manual transmission requires the driver to operate the gear stick and clutch in order to change gears (unlike an automatic transmission or semi-automatic transmission, where one (typically the clutch) or both of these functions are automated). Most manual transmissions for cars allow the driver to select any gear ratio at any time, for example shifting from 2nd to 4th gear, or 5th to 3rd gear. However, sequential manual transmissions, which are commonly used in motorcycles and racing cars, only allow the driver to select the next-higher or next-lower gear.


title: Manual transmission

text: In a vehicle with a manual transmission, the flywheel is attached to the engine's crankshaft, therefore rotating at engine speed. A clutch sits between the flywheel and the transmission input shaft, controlling whether the transmission is connected to the engine ("clutch engaged"- the clutch pedal is not being pressed) or not connected to the engine ("clutch disengaged"- the clutch pedal is being pressed down). When the engine is running and the clutch is engaged (i.e., clutch pedal up), the flywheel spins the clutch plate and hence the transmission.


title: Manual transmission

text: The design of most manual transmissions for cars is that gear ratios are selected by locking selected gear pairs to the output shaft inside the transmission. This is a fundamental difference compared with a typical hydraulic automatic transmission, which uses an epicyclic (planetary) design, and a hydraulic torque converter. An automatic transmission that allows the driver to control the gear selection (such as shift paddles or "+/-" positions on the gear selector) is called a manumatic transmission, and is not considered a manual transmission. Some automatic transmissions are based on the mechanical build and internal design of a manual transmission but have added components (such as computer-controlled actuators and sensors) which automatically control the timing and speed of the gear shifts and clutch; this design is typically called an automated manual transmission (or sometimes a "clutchless manual transmission").


title: Manual transmission

text: Contemporary manual transmissions for cars typically use five or six forward gears ratios and one reverse gear, however, transmissions with between two and seven gears have been produced at times. Transmissions for trucks and other heavy equipment often have between eight and twenty-five gears, in order to keep the engine speed within the optimal power band for all typical road speeds. Operating such transmissions often uses the same pattern of shifter movement with a single or multiple switches to engage the next sequence of gears.