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Ukiyo-e. Frederick Harris
Читать онлайн.Название Ukiyo-e
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781462906147
Автор произведения Frederick Harris
Издательство Ingram
Over the following centuries, Buddhist-related prints became available for study. Some comprised sutras or Buddhist precepts while others were printed in outline and colored by hand. Many images, small in size, were stuffed into the hollows of Buddhist statues as late as the fourteenth century. It is possible that other unknown prints are still lying inside the empty voids of statues in some of Japan’s temples.
Wooden movable type was also introduced from China, where it was developed in the mid-eleventh century and used to publish Buddhist prayer books. Printed religious illustrations often accompanied the text, and in the fifteenth century a remarkable horizontal scroll with illustrations over 4.5 meters (15 feet) long printed from numerous blocks was produced.
Between the early twelfth to the late sixteenth century, Japan suffered from long periods of strife and civil war, power struggles between clans and imperial courts, and attempted invasions by the Mongols. During these times, fires gutted many of the storehouses of the nobility, the wealthy and the temples. Famous monasteries, which also functioned as publishing centers, were burnt. Kyoto, the capital, was devastated. It was not until the Edo period (1615–1867), when the Tokugawa family of shogun fastened their grip on the country and kept out foreign influences that change slowly occurred. The relative peace that ensued after centuries of political unrest provided an ideal environment for the development of popular culture, including art in a commercial form.
The secular development of wood-block printing, along with theater and other amusements, can be traced to the urbanization that took place in the late sixteenth century in Japan as a result of the declining influence of the warrior samurai class and the rise of a class of merchants and artisans (chonin), literally “town people,” who began writing stories or novels based on urban life and culture, and painting pictures that were compiled in picture books. Although in theory the lowest social class under the Tokugawa shogunate, the chonin soon became economically the most powerful group—a thriving merchant class who lived for the moment and had the money to enjoy it. They enjoyed luxurious lives, free of the influences of the classicism of the nobility and the Confucianism of the samurai class. Much of their wealth and spare energy was spent in diversions available in Edo’s “floating world,” the realm of entertainments (courtesans, geisha, teahouses, kabuki theater, sumo wrestling) outside their mundane, everyday world. Certainly, the popularity of the prints showing the ordinary daily life of townsmen was in complete contrast to the works of official painters who serviced the nobility and the samurai class. These painters mostly came from the Tosa and Kano schools of Japanese painting, founded in the fifteenth century.
FIG. 2
Pagoda パゴダ
(AD 770)
Japanese cypress wood, 35 x 10 cm Photo courtesy Yagi Book Store
Originally from the Horyu-ji Temple in Kyoto, this carved pagoda contained a copy of the Hyakumanto Darani, probably the world’s oldest woodblock print.
FIG. 3
Pagoda 上部をはずしたパゴダ
(AD 770)
Japanese cypress wood, 35 x 10 cm
Photo courtesy Yagi Book Store
The top of the pagoda in Fig. 2 is removed, revealing the hollow space in which the printed prayer is rolled up and inserted. The prayer is shown in its entirely on the lower portion of the photo.
FIG. 4
Author examining the Hyakumanto Darani and its original container, a wood pagoda, with the owner of Yagi Book Store, Akira Yagi.
Photo courtesy Yagi Book Store
I was fortunate to be able to handle this ancient print, which comprises ten different darani (prayers), and its carved cypress wood pagoda container.
FIG. 5
Detail of a copy of the Hyakumanto Darani (AD 770).
FIG. 6
Hishikawa MORONOBU
菱川 師信 (1618–94)
Lovers on the Veranda
ベランダの恋人 (1650s)
Black and white print (sumizuri-e), 26 x 18 cm
Author’s Collection
This black ink (sumi) printed illustration from a novel is an example of curvilinear composition held together by the architectural elements of the interior. Only the hairstyles, created with deep black accents, and the kimono patterns allow us to distinguish between the man and the woman.
FIG. 7
Hishikawa MORONOBU
菱川 師信 (1618–94)
Cherry Blossom Viewing 花見 (1680s)
Hand-colored black and white print (tan-e), 33 x 44 cm
Author’s Collection
A high-ranking official and his follower enjoy the ohanami (cherry viewing) while being entertained by courtesans, one of whom plays the shamisen while three others dance. Mats have been set on the ground, incense is burning and saké is being heated and served. Other than the costumes, the exact same scene takes place annually all over Japan during the cherry blossom season.
FIG. 8
Hishikawa MORONOBU
菱川 師信 (1618–94)
or Nishikawa SUKENOBU
祐信 (1671–1751)
Lovers in the Garden 庭園の恋人 (1690s)
Black and white print (sumizuri-e), 26 x 35 cm
Author’s Collection
As most early prints are unsigned, it is uncertain who the artist was. It is a typical Moronobu composition although the scalloped curves in the upper corners was a device used extensively by Sukenobu. The print is probably the first page of a book of shunga (erotica). The samurai has his hand inside his lover’s kimono, feeling her breast. His sword leans against the rocks. This composition is perfectly balanced between the detailed flowers on the left and the simplicity of the right side, with the two figures separating the compositional elements.
FIG. 9
Hishikawa MORONOBU
菱川 師信 (1618–94)
or Nishikawa SUKENOBU
祐信 (1671–1751)
Lovers 恋人 (1690s)
Hand-colored black and white print (tan-e), 23 x 34 cm
Author’s Collection
A love scene in