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Arts Gallery.

      Lastly, ukiyo-e and literature had close connections. Many artists studied poetry, like haiku, waka (five-line poems), and kyōka (satirical poems) and added them to prints. This literary dimension adds to our appreciation of their images, if explained.

      To fully understand ukiyo-e, one should know the lineage of the various schools and who studied under whom. For brevity, this book leaves the reader to go to other sources for that information and this chapter provides just an overview.

      A tradition emerged a hundred years ago of writing off most artists working after the early nineteenth century. Some artists then, and earlier, lacked originality but many prints of the first half of the nineteenth century display superb draftsmanship, conception, and execution. Fin de siècle disapproval had other currents and reasons, but lingers. Collectors should use their own eyes to find out what is good, not rely on Victorian prejudice; then some thought Hiroshige was the last great artist. Recent books on prolific Kunisada, blood-thirsty Yoshitoshi, and Kiyochika (who immortalized scenes from the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars of 1894-5 and 1904-5) show how much longer the genre survived- with greatness!

      Creativity of Erotic Prints (Shunga)

      One area of ukiyo-e long kept hidden was the enormous output of erotic prints (a third or more of the total ukiyo-e output, according to some estimates). Called shunga, they traditionally showed men and women with enormous sexual organs cavorting with glee, sometimes eyed by similarly active humans, mice, or dogs in the background. These pictures embarrassed the modernizers of the Meiji era and influenced several generations of Japanese into instant disapproval, for social or religious reasons, despite the long tradition of erotic art in the country (just as mixed bathing was later banned) after Western, especially missionary, criticism.

      They still offend traditional family types and often governments, but the genre is fascinating as art (the prints often display impeccable draftsmanship), as social history (the boudoir and traditional furnishings are lavishly displayed), and as a facet of a way of life that is no more.

      Even in recent years, astonishingly amusing works have been created. I have a recent hand scroll of dubious intent but great amusement value in which all the actors show appropriate sang-froid. Among others, it depicts men with immense members engaged in "member wrestling"; the shaved pate of a kowtowing samurai is shown to closely resemble a nearby circumcised member head; a kimonoed male dancer performs on a tightrope supported by two giant erect members; like snake charmers, a shamisen (three-string ukulele) and a flute player encourage a top to continue spinning on another erection, amid many other tricks of imaginative fantasy.

      In 1995, the Japanese government finally loosened the publishing laws concerning shunga so some of the best series have recently been issued in book form, including a set by the late and much lamented Richard Lane, and by Hayashi Yoshikazu through Kawade Shobō. They are inexpensive (¥1,800-2,500 per volume in Japan or $15-20), have handsome photographs, and an abridged English text telling you most of what you need.

      Fig. 74 Hokusai,"Shinban Ukie- Eight Hills Piled High with Flowers and Viewers," woodblock print, ca. 1804. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

      Fig. 75 Hokusai,"Fuji 36 Views-Tōtōmi Mountains," wood block print, ca. 1835. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

      Fig. 76 Kunisada (1786-1864), "Imitation Murasaki lnaka Genji-Murasaki," woodblock print, ca. 1830. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

      Fig. 77 Kunisada,"Soga Gorō," wood-block print, ca. 1830. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

      They were produced to amuse men but also women who were bored and frustrated (and who often lived apart from their husbands for months at a time); as "pillow books," they were also used as instruction manuals for the soon-to-be wed. Some of those are still to be found but may be of later origin as many of the best were copied later and republished.

      The peak of artistry and popularity was around 1800. In common with other prints, an important element was the poems incorporated or alluded to in these prints. This extra dimension deepens their attraction for those who follow them up.

      The First Century

      The most important names from 1665 until 1765 included Moronobu, Kiyonobu I, Kaigetsudō, Masanobu, Shigenaga, and Sukenobu (it is hard to find these artists' work but curators would jump at the chance, though many appeared in Sotheby's auction of the Beres Collection in November 2003). The prints were initially monochrome, but as time wore on, single colors were brushed on, then several (sometimes mixed with lacquer for added effect). In 1765, colors were added by woodblock (nishiki-e), creating the colorful prints we know.

      Harunobu (1725-1770) is loved for his "calendar" prints and soft, haunting, refined pictures of women with classical allusions that he made in a kind of"divine frenzy" from 1764 until his death. He became famous for his e-goyomi (pictorial calendars), the first in color. Bunchō, Koryūsai, and Shunshō were leading contemporaries, with Koryūsai using stronger colors than Harunobu.

      In the 1780s, Kiyonaga's bijin-ga (pictures of beauties) and genre pictures were admired by all for their restraint and dignity. The composition is classic, perhaps especially in figure groups outside, and in processions, with no extraneous detail.

      The favorite ukiyo-e artist among Japanese is Utamaro (1753-1806). He endowed women with special elegance, partly by making them proportionately taller, like El Greco figures, and so slimmer. Instead of viewing them from a distance, he came close up: a woman combs her hair or applies white to her neck, as though just a foot away from the viewer. At times he chose a pensive mood to delve into her character and made series with introspective titles like "Women in Love" or "The Flirty Type," so adding a psychological angle. Utamaro focused on bijin portraits. Most have no context but some are placed in imaginary contexts as abalone divers or on Sumida River cruises, so his output covered a wide field. He also made wonderful shunga.

      Fig. 78 Hiroshige,"Vertical Tōkaidō-Kusatsu," woodblock print, ca. 1855. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

      Fig. 79 Hiroshige, "100 Views of Famous Places in Edo- Rain at Ohashi," woodblock print, 1857. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

      The Mystery of Sharaku

      Sharaku was only active 1794-95 but in ten months revolutionized ukiyo-e by adding infinitely greater expression to his characters' faces and a touch of parody. His brutally honest depiction of mie (facial expressions climaxing and encapsulating a kabuki drama) were unflattering, if truthful, but a great moment in world art.

      What makes his oeuvre more extraordinary is the idea (there are many others, some assuming he was a Nō actor from Shikoku, for instance) that Sharaku was a temporary name of Hokusai (he has a dozen others). Tanaka Hidemichi, in Sharaku wa Hokusai de Aru, bases his theory on Western art history and stylistic principles (he claims) and an extensive comparison of portraits, for example by Katsukawa Shunrō (an alias of Hokusai) in 1791 with one by Sharaku in 1794, and another said to be of Sakata Hangorō by Sharaku in May 1794 and the same by Katsukawa Shunrō (i.e. Hokusai) in 1791. This is pretty persuasive though I have not read all 405 pages or opposing works. Rikard Anderssen, a dealer in Tokyo, is equally sure that Chōki made them.

      Chōki, Eishi, Eiri, Eishō, Toyoharu (proponent of perspective), and Toyohiro are excellent artists of the late eighteenth century.

      Landscape Titans

      In his seventy working years, Hokusai (1760-1849) made many of the images for which Japan is famous. In the "Great Wave;' we see distant

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