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Ukiyo-e. Frederick Harris
Читать онлайн.Название Ukiyo-e
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isbn 9781462906147
Автор произведения Frederick Harris
Издательство Ingram
It is perhaps not surprisingly that the first subject matter of ukiyo-e, itself an ambiguous term but most often referred to as “pictures of the floating world,” should depict the hedonistic way of life in the after-hours world of Edo, even then a very large city. In the early stages, most ukiyo-e were created as posters advertising local entertainment such as theater performances and wrestling and services offered by tea-houses, restaurants, bars and brothels. Many carried portraits of popular actors and beautiful women from the tearooms, shops and pleasure quarters of Edo. Some were specially created as souvenirs for clientele, sometimes in the form of flat fans.
The largest volume of secular wood-block printing was, however, confined to book illustration relating to poetry and other educational purposes, such as travel guides, advice manuals, art books, satirical novels, books on urban culture, play scripts for the puppet theater, and to ukiyo-e. Images in books were almost always in monochrome (black sumi ink only), and for a time art prints were also monochrome or done in only two or three colors. Although ukiyo-e were often used for book illustrations, they gained most popularity as single-sheet prints.
Thanks to the rapidly increasing level of literacy as well as the growing affluence of the merchant class, ukiyo-e became extremely popular among the middle (merchant) class. Even if these people could not yet afford an original painting, a mass-produced woodblock print was easily within their reach. They were the cheapest way to decorate homes. The prints could be pasted on walls and sliding doors (fusuma) or on blank folding screens. Tall, narrow prints could also be glued to the pillar dividing the room panels (hashira-e) or hung as scrolls (kakemono), especially in the alcove of a room.
The merchant class also came to influence the subject matter of ukiyo-e. The more or less sophisticated world of urban pleasures was also animated by the traditional Japanese love of nature. Scenes from the natural world, particularly landscapes, were particularly popular and are among the most famous ukiyo-e today. Ukiyo-e traditions were to have an enormous impact on Western art in the late nineteenth century.
For many years there has been debate over the artist responsible for starting ukiyo-e. Although it is likely that there was no single originator but, rather, a slow development coinciding with the creation of novels and plays compiled in book form that required picture illustrations, two names are often proposed as the originators of ukiyo-e— Iwasa Matabei (1578–1650) and Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–94). Matabei, however, was primarily a painter, not a printmaker, who specialized in genre scenes of historical events and illustrations of classical Chinese and Japanese literature. Moreover, he died before the Genroku era (1688– 1704), generally considered to be the Golden Age of the Edo period when popular culture flourished and new art forms like kabuki and ukiyo-e became very popular, especially among the townspeople. This was also the period immediately following religious-related woodcut production.
Moronobu not only painted but also turned out hundreds of prints in the form of illustrated books. Although Chapter 3 of this book is dedicated to illustrated books, so many of Moronobu’s books and albums have been dismantled and sold as separate sheets to collectors that we can also view his work as individual stand-alone prints even if they were once part of a book or album. As the most prolific artist of the seventeenth century, he deserves to be given credit as the true founder of the so-called “primitive” ukiyo-e printing period.
Even though Moronobu is known as an Edo artist, many of his books were published in Kyoto where he studied under Kano Tanyu, a master painter of the Tosa school of art. This links with the beginnings of ukiyo-e from Tosa-e —works produced by artists of the popular school of art who serviced the artistic needs of the upper classes of Japan.
Moronobu’s prints are pure sumizuri-e, bold black and white designs (Figs. 6–9). An outline, consistent in size, weaves in and out of the figural compositions and is broken only by the solid black patterns of the costumes and the hair arrangements. Texture is introduced by the use of small patterns. His figures always seem to be bent at the knee, producing a dance-like stance. On occasion, one can come across a Moronobu print that is hand colored in the subtlest choice of hues.
In the traditions established by Moronobu, we next meet one of the most prolific of the Genroku artists, Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671–1751). The first dated work of his is 1699. Prior to this, he is recorded to have studied in both the Tosa and Kano schools of painting. Sukenobu brought a lifelike presence to his figures (Fig. 10). We sense the actual weight of the human body, not just a doll-like replica. Sukenobu was interested in women of all classes, from the nobility to the common peddlers of the day who went from house to house selling everything from food to firewood, and in all aspects of their lives. His figures twist and turn and perform movements that are natural and believable. Sukenobu’s line also varies a little more than his predecessors. There is almost a calli-graphic quality to his work, which becomes much more apparent with the group of artists who came after him. Another follower of Moronobu, Sugimura Jihei (active 1681–97), specialized in shunga or erotic prints in a flamboyant and decorative style but also portrayed beautiful women (Fig. 11).
There follows two early eighteenth-century groups from Edo who conclude the “primitives”: the Torii school, which dominated the print world for over seventy-five years and specialized in actor and theater prints (see Chapter 6), and the Kaigetsudo school, primarily known for its prints of beautiful women dressed in elaborately patterned kimono (see Chapter 5).
FIG. 10
Nishikawa SUKENOBU
祐信 (1671–1751)
Three Courtesans Preparing for a Party
宴に備える3人の遊女 (1710s)
Hand-colored black and white print (tan-e), 28 x 38 cm
Author’s Collection
This is a good example of an indoor–outdoor scene. The relative importance of the three courtesans is indicated by their differing sizes.
The Torii school, founded by Torii Kiyonobu I (1664–1729) (Fig. 12), produced such artists as Torii Kiyomasu I (ca. 1694–1716?), who lived a short but talented life and is believed to be either the son or younger brother of Kiyonobu I (Figs. 13, 14), and his successors, Torii Kiyomasa II (1706– 63) (Figs. 15, 16) and Torii Kiyotada I (1720–50) (Fig. 17). The early Torii school artists worked so closely together and were so intermixed by family ties and teacher–pupil relations that it takes a great deal of expertise to differentiate their work. For example, some people believe that Kiyomasu II and Kiyonobu II are one and the same person. Others say Kiyomasu II was the adopted sonin-law of Kiyonobu II.
The Kaigetsudo school, founded around 1700–14 by the painter Kaigetsudo Ando (n.d.), includes in its ranks several significant artists, among them Nishimura Shigenobu (active 1724–35) (Fig. 18), Okumura Masanobu (1686–1764) (Fig. 19) and Ishikawa Toyonobu (1711–85) (Fig. 20). As with the Torii school, the styles of the various Kaigetsudo artists are very similar and it is often difficult to differentiate them. However, all tended to work in larger format prints and almost all portray a single female figure, at times with an attendant. The prints swing in an uncontrolled rhythm using an exciting thick calligraphic line to define the pose. There is a wonderful contrast between the thick curvilinear outline and the very fine thin line that describes the features of the head, hands and feet. As an artist, I am interested in the fact that these Japanese prints follow a concept identical to one commonly employed by the artists in the Italian Renaissance, namely the counter spiral. The head and feet point in an opposite direction to the torso, giving the figure, even though stationary, a sense of movement. This concept came naturally to the Japanese whereas it took years for it to be understood in Europe.
All of the prints in this chapter are brightly colored by hand, a technique that will be discussed in more detail in the relevant chapters. These hand-painted prints have interesting descriptive titles, depending on what colors dominated. Most of them are referred to as tan-e. There is some disagreement among scholars as to whether the term tan refers to a deep chrome yellow or to