UkiyoUkiyo

who we are

About Ukiyo

Ukiyo (浮世) means "the floating world" in Japanese: a world of beauty, transience, and the present moment. That's us.

What We Do

Ukiyo started as a mental health initiative in 2021, built by one idea, a handful of volunteers, and a lot of heart. Since then we've grown into a community built around slowness, self-reflection, and showing up for each other. We run structured self-reflection programs in collaboration with psychologists across India, the UK, and Australia, host book clubs and pop-up markets, publish community zines, and build small, gentle tools (like the ones on this site) for anyone who needs a softer place to land. Mental health comes first here, always. Everything else, the journals and the washi tape and the rooftop chai, is just how we make that feeling last a little longer.

Our Team

the people steering the floating world

🌸

Ishika Jain

Founder & CEO

Ishika started Ukiyo in 2021 as a small mental health initiative, mostly because the spaces she wanted to be in did not exist yet. She has been building it ever since, one book club and one sharing circle at a time. She cares about the unglamorous part of community work: showing up consistently, keeping things kind, and making sure nobody who walks in feels like an outsider.

🌿

Pragati Chawla

President

with us

Advisors

people who lend us their perspective when we need it

🧭

Nishika Mehra

Advisor

🕯️

Sarvagya

Advisor

Our Achievements

small numbers that mean a lot to us

100+

Volunteers who've shown up for us

2K+

Followers across all our accounts and groups

150+

Participants across our programs

7

Self-reflection cohorts run

94%+

Participant satisfaction score

20+

Events hosted since 2021

1.5K+

Attendees across our events

10+

Psychologists we've partnered with

The Archives

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2021

Ukiyo is Born

Founded as a mental health initiative. One small idea, a handful of volunteers, and a lot of heart.

Oct 2022

First Book Club

8 people on a rooftop with chai and one very battered copy of Kafka on the Shore.

Jan 2023

First Pop-up

A tiny market in someone's living room. Sold out in 2 hours.

Jun 2023

100 Members

Opened online. Ukiyo became more than a city.

Dec 2023

First Zine

'On Slowness', a community-made zine now in 12 cities.

Apr 2024

Ukiyo Shop Opens

Journals, prints, and small cozy things to carry the feeling with you.

better together

Who We've Worked With

Sessions, panels and circles run alongside other organisations and practitioners. None of this happens on our own.

N

Nyay'ri

NGO

Co-ran a self-care and wellness session for young people, alongside Break The Ice.

BT

Break The Ice

NGO

The other half of that self-care session. Known as BTI.

HP

Humraahi Psychotherapy

Practice

Vasundhara Gupta spoke on our Conquering Imposter Syndrome panel.

AS

Anisha Samant

Speaker

Spoke with the community on mental health and self-care.

What People Say

"The self-reflection program genuinely changed how I talk to myself. Didn't expect that from an Instagram community."

Meher K.

"I came for one pop-up and stayed for two years. Ukiyo just feels like a soft place to land."

Arjun P.

"As a psychologist who's collaborated with them, I can vouch for how seriously they take mental health, not just the aesthetic of it."

Devika S.

Join Our Team 📝

We're looking for curious, kind humans to intern with us. If this sounds like you, say hello.

We take interns across planning and peer support, content and social media, and design. Tell us your name, which of those you are drawn to, and two or three sentences on why Ukiyo. That is genuinely all we need to start a conversation.