Preamble
For you convenience I have listed the other post in this series below.
Japanese Prints (Part II)
Japanese Prints (Part III)
Introduction [1]
Just over a hundred years after it first reached the West, the so-called Japanese print has become one of the best-known and most popular forms of Japanese Art. The term "Japanese print" is now synonymous with the broadsheet woodblock print, printed in full color, which dates from a time roughly corresponding to the Edo period (1615 - 1868). In Japan such works are referred to as Ukiyo-e ("floating world pictures"). "Ukiyo" being originally a Buddhist word. During the seventeenth century, however, its meaning changed to indicate the "floating world" of city life with its transient pleasures. A seventeenth-century woodblock printed book admirably describes it as:
"Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasure of the moon, sun, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves, singing songs, drinking wine, and diverting ourselves just in floating, floating, caring not a whit for the pauperism staring us in the face, refusing to be disheartened., like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world."
It is this world which Japanese prints most frequently portray.
In 1615, after nearly 200 hundred years of civil war, Japan was unified once more by Tokugawa Ieyasu who, as shogun or military ruler, became the de facto ruler of the country. He established Edo (modern Tokyo) as the center of government, while Kyoto remained the home of the imperial court. It was these two cities, along with Osaka, which became the most thriving urban centres of the Edo period and which housed the main publishing establishments.
The early Edo period also experienced social and economic changes which had far reaching effects on the arts and crafts of the time. Japanese society was divided into three rigid groups, with merchants and artisans at the bottom. This early period also coincided with a time of general material prosperity, and despite their lowly status, the townspeople of the Edo period rose to a new position of prominence.
The merchants used their new-found wealth in the pursuit of leisure activities. In Edo, the Yoshiwara district was set aside expressly for this purpose, with theatres, brothels, tea houses, sake-drinking parlours and eating establishments, as well as shops. They also sought material evidence of their wealth in the form of art objects. Lacking any cultural or stylistic traditions in this field, they were looking for a new form of art with which they could associate and which they could really understand. Ukiyo-e prints, portraying scenes of everyday life in a manner which did not rely wholly on any existing style of painting, developed as one manifestation of bourgeois art to fulfil this need.
Japanese Prints (Part I) [1]
A couple warming themselves by a kotatsu by Katsukawa Terusbige (active from 1715 - 25). Handcolored and inscribed with a poem. In the background of the print is the tokonoma (or display alcove) which reveals the lower part of a painted hanging scroll, a pile of woodblock printed books, a lacquer box and burning incense, while to the left is a painted screen [1].
A fashionable and entertaining guide by Okumura Toshinobu (ca. 1717 - 50). Handcolored and decorated with brass dust. A samurai is being guided by a fashionable beauty, with Mount Fuji in the background [1].
Actor Sodezaki Iseno, as a girl, embraced by actor Ogimo Isaburō, as a samurai (ca. 1726) by Torii Kiyonobu (1664 - 1729). Handcolored and decorated with brass dust [1].
Portrait of actor Sakata Hangorō I playing the role as Yamada Saburo (ca. 1760) by Torii Kiyomitsu (1735 - 85). Printed in two colors and inscribed with a poem. The family crest or mon appears on the costume of the actor for identification. [1].
"Returning sails of town rack" (ca. 1768) by Suzuki Harunobu (1724 - 70). From the series "Eight Views of the Parlour". A tool flapping on a bamboo rack was licked to the billowing sails of a boat returning to harbour [1].
"A pair of lovers reading a letter" (ca. 1768) by Suzuki Harunobu (1724 - 70). The scene probably alludes to the famous letter-reading in the Chushingura ("Tale of the 47 Ronin") drama. The fact that the woman portrayed in the print has her obi or sash tied at the front indicates that she is a courtesan [1].
"Courtesan watching her maids build a snow dog", 1768, by Suzuki Harunobu (1724 - 70). The depiction of snow scenes was a subject favoured by many print designers, including Harunobu. It provided a challenge for the portrayal of areas of white to denote the snow, usually carried out by reserving the paper in its natural "white" color, and supplied some interesting color contrast [1].
Unidentified actors playing a pair of lovers, ca. 1780, by Katsukawa Shunshō (1726 - 92). Two sheets of a triptych.
Reference:
[1] J. Hutt, Japanese Prints, Studio Editions Ltd, London (1996).
For you convenience I have listed the other post in this series below.
Japanese Prints (Part II)
Japanese Prints (Part III)
Introduction [1]
Just over a hundred years after it first reached the West, the so-called Japanese print has become one of the best-known and most popular forms of Japanese Art. The term "Japanese print" is now synonymous with the broadsheet woodblock print, printed in full color, which dates from a time roughly corresponding to the Edo period (1615 - 1868). In Japan such works are referred to as Ukiyo-e ("floating world pictures"). "Ukiyo" being originally a Buddhist word. During the seventeenth century, however, its meaning changed to indicate the "floating world" of city life with its transient pleasures. A seventeenth-century woodblock printed book admirably describes it as:
"Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasure of the moon, sun, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves, singing songs, drinking wine, and diverting ourselves just in floating, floating, caring not a whit for the pauperism staring us in the face, refusing to be disheartened., like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world."
It is this world which Japanese prints most frequently portray.
In 1615, after nearly 200 hundred years of civil war, Japan was unified once more by Tokugawa Ieyasu who, as shogun or military ruler, became the de facto ruler of the country. He established Edo (modern Tokyo) as the center of government, while Kyoto remained the home of the imperial court. It was these two cities, along with Osaka, which became the most thriving urban centres of the Edo period and which housed the main publishing establishments.
The early Edo period also experienced social and economic changes which had far reaching effects on the arts and crafts of the time. Japanese society was divided into three rigid groups, with merchants and artisans at the bottom. This early period also coincided with a time of general material prosperity, and despite their lowly status, the townspeople of the Edo period rose to a new position of prominence.
The merchants used their new-found wealth in the pursuit of leisure activities. In Edo, the Yoshiwara district was set aside expressly for this purpose, with theatres, brothels, tea houses, sake-drinking parlours and eating establishments, as well as shops. They also sought material evidence of their wealth in the form of art objects. Lacking any cultural or stylistic traditions in this field, they were looking for a new form of art with which they could associate and which they could really understand. Ukiyo-e prints, portraying scenes of everyday life in a manner which did not rely wholly on any existing style of painting, developed as one manifestation of bourgeois art to fulfil this need.
Japanese Prints (Part I) [1]
Reference:
[1] J. Hutt, Japanese Prints, Studio Editions Ltd, London (1996).
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