Editorial—Ukiyo-e

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EDITORIAL

What Is Ukiyo-e?

Below: Hokusai; Fuji from Gotenyama at Shinagawa on the Tōkaidō, 1830–1832; from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

WHAT IS UKIYO-E?

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Ukiyo-e, often translated as “pictures of the floating world”, is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 1600s–1800s. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of subjects such as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica.

This editorial presents the genre’s history, as well as its production techniques, themes, and subsequent influence on Western art. It also profiles some of the most well-known, influential ukiyo-e artists and how they have made work that has continued to fascinate many over 200 years later. From this editorial the reader will gain an understanding and new-found appreciation for this iconic genre of art.

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EDITORIAL

History

HISTORY

Utagawa Kuniyoshi; Japanese Cuckoo, mid-19th century

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Emergence Of Ukiyo-e & Peak Era 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.

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 genre.

In response to increasing demand, Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–1694) produced some of the first ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

By 1672, Moronobu's success was such that he began to sign his work—the first to do so. He was a prolific illustrator who worked in a wide variety of genres, and developed an influential style.

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. Morunobu attracted a large number of followers and imitators, and signalled the beginning of the popularization of a new artform.

EMERGENCE & PEAK ERA

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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). 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 from the Utagawa school had their works repressed in 1801, and Utamaro was imprisoned in 1804 for making prints of 16th-century military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Edo was the primary centre of ukiyo-e production. 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.

Above: Suzuki Harunobu; Two Young Women Seated by a Kotatsu Playing Cat's Cradle, 1765

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EDITORIAL

Later Works

LATER WORKS

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The Tenpō Reforms of 1841–1843 sought to suppress outward displays of luxury, including the depiction of courtesans and actors. As a result, many artists designed travel scenes and pictures of nature, especially birds and flowers. It was not until late in the Edo period that landscape came into its own as a genre, mainly via the works of Hokusai and Hiroshige.

The self-proclaimed “mad painter” Hokusai (1760–1849) enjoyed a long, varied career. 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.

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 Suikoden (1827–1830) and Chūshingura (1847). He was adept at landscapes and satirical scenes—the latter an area rarely explored; that Kuniyoshi could dare tackle such subjects was a sign of the weakening of the shogunate at the time.

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 print series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō. 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.

Opposite: Utagawa Kuniyoshi; The Courtesan Hanao of Ogi-ya, 1830–1844

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EDITORIAL

Western Influence Japanese art, and particularly ukiyo-e prints, came to influence Western art from the time of the early Impressionists. Early artist 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 ukiyo-e's patterned kimonos.

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 and poster designers.

Toulouse-Lautrec's lithographs displayed his interest not only in ukiyo-e's flat colours and outlined forms, but also in their subject matter. Other artists of the time who drew influence from ukiyo-e include Monet, La Farge, and Gauguin.

Opposite: Suzuki Harunobu; Birds and Narcissus, 18th century

WESTERN INFLUENCE

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EDITORIAL

Themes & Production

THEMES & PRODUCTION

Kitagawa Utamaro; Three Beauties of the Present Day, 1793

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Themes Typical subjects were female beauties (‘bijin-ga’), kabuki actors (‘yakusha-e’), 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.

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 kachō-e, 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 kachō-e as a genre.

THEMES

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Above: Hokusai; Moonlight on the Yodo River (Yodogawa), 1833; from the series Snow, Moon, and Flowers

The Tenpō Reforms of the 1840s suppressed the depiction of actors and courtesans. Aside from landscapes and kachō-e, 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.

In the mid-19th century, Yokohama became the primary foreign settlement after 1859, from which Western knowledge proliferated in Japan. Especially from 1858–1862 Yokohama-e prints documented the growing community of world denizens with whom the Japanese were now coming in contact with; triptychs of scenes of Westerners and their technology were particularly popular at the time.

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EDITORIAL

Production & Techniques

PRODUCTION & TECHNIQUES

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Ukiyo-e prints were the works of teams of artisans in several workshops. Labour was divided into four groups: the publisher, who commissioned, promoted, and distributed the prints; the artists, who provided the design; the woodcarvers, who prepared the woodblocks for printing; and the printers, who made impressions of the woodblocks on paper.

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 the paper could be pulled away. This left a translucent layer 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 ukiyo-e print was a commercial art form, and the publisher played an important role. Publishing was highly competitive; over a thousand are known from throughout the period. The number peaked at around 250 in the 1840s—200 in Edo alone—and slowly shrank following the opening of Japan. 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. Publishers were usually also vendors, and commonly sold each other's wares in their shops.

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.

The prints were mass-marketed and by the mid-19th century total circulation of a print could run into the thousands. Retailers and travelling sellers promoted them at prices affordable to prosperous townspeople.

Opposite: Kitagawa Utamaro; Hinazuru and Hinamatsu of the Chôjiya, 1797; from the series Courtesans of the Pleasure Quarters in Double Mirrors

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EDITORIAL

Featured Artists

KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI

UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI

FEATURED ARTISTS

KITAGAWA UTAMARO

SUZUKI HARUNOBU

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EDITORIAL

Katsushika Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period.

Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the internationally iconic print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. He used many pseudonyms during his lifetime, often related to changes in his artistic production and style.

HOKUSAI

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At 14, he worked as an apprentice to a wood-carver, until the age of 18, when he entered the studio of Katsukawa Shunshō, an artist and head of the so-called Katsukawa school. In 1779 Hokusai published his first set of prints, a series of pictures of kabuki actors under the name Shunrō, a name given to him by his master.

Upon the death of Shunshō in 1793, Hokusai began exploring other styles of art, including European styles he was exposed to through French and Dutch copper engravings he was able to acquire.

Hokusai also changed the subjects of his works, shifting his focus from courtesans and actors to landscapes and images of daily life. This change of subject was a breakthrough in ukiyo-e and in Hokusai’s career.

By the year 1800, Hokusai was further developing his use of ukiyo-e for purposes other than portraiture and had also adopted the name he would most widely be known by. That year, he published two collections of landscapes, Famous Sights of the Eastern Capital and Eight Views of Edo. In 1811, at the age of 51, Hokusai changed his name to Taito and entered the period in which he created the Hokusai Manga and various etehon (art manuals). These etehon, beginning in 1812 with Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawing, served as a convenient way to make money and attract more students. Manga (meaning random drawings) included studies in perspective.

Opposite: The Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1829–1833

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EDITORIAL

In 1820, Hokusai changed his name yet again, this time to “Iitsu”, a change which marked the start of a period in which he secured fame as an artist throughout Japan. His most famous work, Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji, was produced in the early 1830s.

The results of Hokusai’s studies in Manga can be seen in The Great Wave off Kanagawa where he uses what would have been seen as a Western perspective to represent depth and volume. It proved so popular that Hokusai later added ten more prints to the series.

In 1839, a fire destroyed Hokusai’s studio, and much of his work and popularity was beginning to fade. However, he never stopped painting and produced the work Ducks in a Stream at the age of 87. Constantly seeking to produce better work, he apparently exclaimed on his deathbed, “If only Heaven will give me just another ten years...Just another five years, then I could become a real painter.” He died on May 10, 1849 and was buried at the Seikyō-ji in Tokyo.

Opposite: Peonies and Canary, 1834; from the Small Flower series Above: Cuckoo and Azaleas, 1834; from the Small Flower series

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EDITORIAL

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861) was one of the last great masters of ukiyo-e and a member of the Utagawa school. The range of Kuniyoshi's subjects included many genres: landscapes, beautiful women, kabuki actors, cats, and mythical animals. He is known for depictions of the battles of legendary samurai heroes. His artwork incorporated aspects of Western representation in landscape painting and caricature.

KUNIYOSHI

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Originally named YoshisaburĹ?, he assisted his father's business as a pattern designer, and some have suggested that this experience influenced his rich use of colour and textile patterns in prints.

YoshisaburĹ? proved his drawing talents at age 12, quickly attracting the attention of the famous print master Utagawa Toyokuni.

Kuniyoshi was admitted to Toyokuni's studio in 1811, and became one of his chief pupils. He remained an apprentice until 1814, at which time he was given the name "Kuniyoshi" and set out as an independent artist.

Between 1815 and 1817 he created a number of book illustrations for yomihon, kokkeibon, gĹ?kan and hanashibon, and printed stand-alone full color prints of kabuki actors and warriors.

Despite his promising debut, the young Kuniyoshi failed to produce many works between 1818 and 1827, probably due to a lack of commissions from publishers, and the competition of other artists.

Above: Landscapes and Beauties: Feeling Like Reading the Next Volume (cropped), Edo period, 19th century Following: Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre, 1844

During the 1820s, Kuniyoshi produced a number of heroic triptychs that show the first signs of an individual style. In 1827 he received his first major commission for a collection of warrior prints based on the Chinese tale Shuihu Zhuan. In this series Kuniyoshi illustrated individual heroes on single-sheets with tattoos, a novelty which soon influenced Edo fashion.

The Suikoden series became extremely popular, and the demand for Kuniyoshi’s prints increased, gaining him entrance into the major ukiyo-e and literary circles.

He continued to produce warrior prints, which were unique in that they depicted legendary popular figures with an added stress on dreams, ghostly apparitions, omens, and superhuman feats. These new thematic styles satisfied the public’s interest in the ghastly, exciting, and bizarre that was growing during the time.

The Tenpō Reforms of 1841–1843 aimed to alleviate economic crisis by controlling public displays of luxury and wealth, and the illustration of courtesans and actors in ukiyo-e was officially banned. This influenced Kuniyoshi’s production of caricature and comic prints, many of which symbolically and humorously criticized the shogunate.

As a result, these became popular among the politically dissatisfied public. During the decade leading up to the reforms, Kuniyoshi also produced landscape prints (fĹŤkeiga), which were outside the bounds of censorship and catered to the rising popularity of personal travel. He also produced works of purely natural subject matter, notably of animals, birds and fish that mimicked traditional Japanese and Chinese painting.

In the late 1840s, Kuniyoshi began again to illustrate actor prints, this time evading censorship (or simply evoking creativity) through childish, cartoon-like portraits of famous kabuki actors. Here he creatively used elementary, childlike script sloppily written in kana under their faces.

He was also known during this time to have experimented with wide composition, magnifying visual elements in the image for a dramatic, exaggerated effect. In 1856 Kuniyoshi suffered from palsy, which caused him much difficulty in moving his limbs. It is said that his works from this point onward were noticeably weaker.

Before his death in 1861, Kuniyoshi was able to witness the opening of the port city of Yokohama to foreigners, and in 1860 produced two works depicting Westerners in the city. He died at the age of 63 in April 1861 in his home in Genyadana.

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EDITORIAL

Kitagawa Utamaro

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806) was a Japanese artist and one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e. He is best known for his bijin ōkubi-e “large headed pictures of beautiful women” of the 1790s.

He also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects. Utamaro’s work began to appear in the 1770s, and he rose to prominence in the early 1790s.

He produced over 2000 known prints and was one of the few ukiyo-e artists to achieve fame throughout Japan in his lifetime.

UTAMARO

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Little is known of Utamaro's life. He was born Kitagawa Ichitarō in 1753. The names of his parents are not known; it has been suggested his father may have been a Yoshiwara teahouse owner, or Toriyama Sekien, an artist who tutored him and who wrote of Utamaro playing in his garden as a child. Sometime during his childhood Utamaro came under the tutelage of Sekien, who described his pupil as bright and devoted to art.

Utamaro's first published work may be an illustration in the haikai poetry anthology Chiyo no Haru published in 1770. His next known works appear in 1775 under the name Kitagawa Toyoaki for the cover to a kabuki playbook entitled Forty-eight Famous Love Scenes. As Toyoaki, Utamaro continued as an illustrator of popular literature for the rest of the decade, and occasionally produced portraits of kabuki actors.

Utamaro's first work for Tsutaya Jūzaburō, a young publisher, appeared in a kibyōshi (illustrated literature) book created in collaboration with his friend Shimizu Enjū, a writer. In the book, Tsutaya described the pair as making their debuts. In 1793 he achieved recognition as an artist, and his semi-exclusive arrangement with the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō ended.

Utamaro then went on to produce several series of well-known works, all featuring women of the Yoshiwara district. Over the years, he also created a number of volumes of animal, insect, and nature studies.

The Ehon Taikōki, published from 1797 to 1802, detailed the life of the 16th-century military ruler, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The work was widely adapted. When artists and writers put out prints and books based on the Ehon Taikōki, it attracted reprisals from the government.

In probably the most famous case of censorship of the Edo period, Utamaro ran into legal trouble over a series of prints of samurai warriors in 1804. The depiction of warriors, their names, and their crests was forbidden at the time. Records give Utamaro's death date as the 31st October 1806 and was buried at Senkōji temple.

Opposite: Takashima Ohisa using two mirrors to observe her coiffure (cropped), 1795

Above: Teahouse Maidens under a Wisteria Trellis, 1795

Above: Hairdresser, 1797–1798; from the series Twelve Types of Women's Handicraft

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EDITORIAL

Suzuki Harunobu

Suzuki Harunobu (1725–1770) was a Japanese designer and ukiyo-e artist. He was an innovator, the first to produce full-colour prints (nishiki-e) in 1765.

Harunobu used many special techniques, and depicted a wide variety of subjects, from classical poems to contemporary beauties. During his lifetime and shortly afterwards, many artists imitated his style.

HARUNOBU

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Little is known of Harunobu's early life, but it is believed he grew up in Kyoto. He was from a samurai family, and had an ancestor who was a retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu that accompanied him to Edo. At some point, Harunobu became a student of the ukiyo-e master Nishikawa Sukenobu.

He began his career in the style of the Torii school, creating many works, while skillful, were not innovative and did not stand out.

It was only through his involvement with a group of literati samurai that Harunobu tackled new formats and styles. In 1764, as a result of his social connections, he was chosen to aid this samurai group in their amateur efforts to create e-goyomi (calendar prints).

It is known that Harunobu was close acquaintances or friends with many of the prominent artists and scholars of the period.

Harunobu's calendars, which incorporated the calculations of the lunar calendar into their images, would be exchanged at various Edo gatherings and parties.

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EDITORIAL

Previous: The Heron Maiden Standing Beneath a Willow Tree (cropped), 1766–1767 Above: Lady On a Fish Reading, 1765

HARUNOBU

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As a result of the wealth and connoisseurship of his samurai patrons, Harunobu created nishiki-e prints using only the best materials he could. Harunobu experimented with better woods for the woodblocks, and used more expensive colours.

He also experimented with using a thicker application of the colours, in order to achieve a more opaque effect. The most important innovation in the creation of nishiki-e was the ability of Harunobu to use as many separate blocks as he wished for a single image.

Just 20 years previously, the invention of benizuri-e had made it possible to print in three or four colours; Harunobu applied this new technique to ukiyo-e prints using up to ten different colours on a single sheet of paper. Harunobu was the first ukiyo-e artist to consistently use more than three colours in each print.

In the late 1760s Harunobu became one of the primary producers of images of bijin-ga and kabuki actors and of similar and related subjects for the Edo print connoisseur market. Between 1765 and 1770, Harunobu created over twenty illustrated books and over one thousand colour prints, along with a number of paintings. He came to be regarded as the master of ukiyo-e during these last years of his life, and was widely imitated until and after his death in 1770.