Ukiyo-e - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

is a genre of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese woodblock prints

Woodblock printing

Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper....

(or woodcut

Woodcut

Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...

s) and painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

s produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

, and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan

Woodblock printing in Japan

Woodblock printing in Japan is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only...

.

Usually the word ukiyo
Ukiyo
Ukiyo described the urban lifestyle, especially the pleasure-seeking aspects, of Edo-period Japan . The "Floating World" culture developed in Yoshiwara, the licensed red-light district of Edo , which was the site of many brothels, chashitsu tea houses, and kabuki theaters frequented by Japan's...

is literally translated as "floating world" in English, referring to a conception of an evanescent world, impermanent, fleeting beauty and a realm of entertainments (kabuki

Kabuki

is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...

, courtesans

Oiran

were courtesans in Japan. The oiran were considered a type of "woman of pleasure" or prostitute. However, they are distinguished from the yūjo in that they were entertainers, and many became celebrities of their times outside the pleasure districts...

, geisha

Geisha

, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...

) divorced from the responsibilities of the mundane, everyday world; "pictures of the floating world", i.e. ukiyo-e, are considered a genre unto themselves.

The contemporary novelist Asai Ryōi

Asai Ryoi

was a Japanese writer in the early Edo period. A Buddhist priest who was at one time head of a Kyoto temple, he is held to be one of the finest writers of Kanazōshi. Kanazōshi was a form of popular literature that was written with little or no kanji, thus accessible to many. Though it spanned...

, in his , provides some insight into the concept of the floating world:

... Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; ... refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world...

The art form rose to great popularity in the metropolitan culture of Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

(Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

) during the second half of the 17th century, originating with the single-color works of Hishikawa Moronobu

Hishikawa Moronobu

was a Japanese painter and printmaker known for his advancement of the ukiyo-e woodcut style starting in the 1670s.-Early life and training:Moronobu was the son of a well-respected dyer and a gold and silver-thread embroiderer in the village of Hodamura, Awa Province, near Edo Bay. After moving to...

in the 1670s. At first, only India ink

India ink

India ink is a simple black ink once widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for drawing, especially when inking comic books and comic strips.-Composition:...

was used, then some prints were manually colored with a brush, but in the 18th century Suzuki Harunobu

Suzuki Harunobu

was a Japanese woodblock print artist, one of the most famous in the Ukiyo-e style. He was an innovator, the first to produce full-color prints in 1765, rendering obsolete the former modes of two- and three-color prints. Harunobu used many special techniques, and depicted a wide variety of...

developed the technique of polychrome printing to produce nishiki-e
Nishiki-e
refers to Japanese multi-colored woodblock printing; this technique is used primarily in ukiyo-e. It was invented in the 1760s, and perfected and popularized by the printmaker Suzuki Harunobu, who produced a great many nishiki-e prints between 1765 and his death five years later.Previously, most...

.

Ukiyo-e were affordable because they could be mass-produced. They were mainly meant for townsmen, who were generally not wealthy enough to afford an original painting. The original subject of ukiyo-e was city life, in particular activities and scenes from the entertainment district. Beautiful courtesan

Courtesan

A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...

s, bulky sumo wrestlers and popular actors would be portrayed while engaged in appealing activities. Later on landscapes

Landscape art

Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...

also became popular. Political subjects, and individuals above the lowest strata of society (courtesans, wrestlers and actors) were not sanctioned in these prints and very rarely appeared. Sex was not a sanctioned subject either, but continually appeared in ukiyo-e prints. Artists and publishers were sometimes punished for creating these sexually explicit shunga
Shunga
' is a Japanese term for erotic art. Most shunga are a type of ukiyo-e, usually executed in woodblock print format. While rare, there are extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate the Ukiyo-e movement...

.

History

Ukiyo-e can be categorized into two periods: the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

, which comprises ukiyo-e from its origins in the 1620s until about 1867, when the Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

began, lasting until 1912. The Edo period was largely a period of calm that provided an ideal environment for the development of the art in a commercial form; while the Meiji period is characterized by new influences as Japan opened up to the West.

The roots of ukiyo-e can be traced to the urbanization

Urbanization

Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....

that took place in the late 16th century that led to the development of a class of merchants and artisans who began writing stories or novels, and painting pictures, compiled in ehon (絵本, picture books, books with stories and picture illustrations), such as the 1608 edition of Tales of Ise by Hon'ami Kōetsu

Honami Koetsu

was a Japanese craftsman, potter, lacquerer, and calligrapher, whose work is generally considered to have inspired the founding of the Rinpa school of painting.-Early life:...

. Ukiyo-e were often used for illustrations in these books, but came into their own as single-sheet prints (e.g., postcards or kakemono-e) or were posters for the kabuki theater

Kabuki

. Many stories were based on urban life and culture; guidebooks were also popular; and all in all had a commercial nature and were widely available. Hishikawa Moronobu

Hishikawa Moronobu

, who already used polychrome painting, became very influential after the 1670s.
In the mid-18th century, techniques allowed for production of full-color prints, called nishiki-e

Nishiki-e

refers to Japanese multi-colored woodblock printing; this technique is used primarily in ukiyo-e. It was invented in the 1760s, and perfected and popularized by the printmaker Suzuki Harunobu, who produced a great many nishiki-e prints between 1765 and his death five years later.Previously, most...

, and the ukiyo-e that are reproduced today on postcards and calendars date from this period on. Utamaro

Utamaro

was a Japanese printmaker and painter, who is considered one of the greatest artists of woodblock prints . His name was romanized as Outamaro. He is known especially for his masterfully composed studies of women, known as bijinga...

, Hokusai

Hokusai

was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting...

, Hiroshige

Hiroshige

was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ....

, and Sharaku

Sharaku

is widely considered to be one of the great masters of the woodblock printing in Japan. Little is known of him, besides his ukiyo-e prints; neither his true name nor the dates of his birth or death are known with any certainty...

were the prominent artists of this period. After studying Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an artwork, receding perspective entered the pictures and other ideas were picked up. Katsushika Hokusai's pictures depicted mostly landscapes and nature. His were published starting around 1831. Ando Hiroshige and Kunisada

Kunisada

Utagawa Kunisada was the most popular, prolific and financially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan...

also published many pictures drawn on motifs from nature.

In 1842, pictures of courtesan

Courtesan

s, geisha

Geisha

, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...

and actors (e.g., onnagata) were banned as part of the Tenpō reforms

Tenpo reforms

The were an array of economic policies introduced in 1842 by the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan.These reforms were efforts to resolve perceived problems in military, economic, agricultural, financial and religious systems....

. Pictures with these motifs experienced some revival when they were permitted again.

During the Kaei era, (1848–1854), many foreign merchant ships came to Japan. The ukiyo-e of that time reflect the cultural changes.

Following the Meiji Restoration

Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

in 1868, Japan became open to imports from the West, including photography, which largely replaced ukiyo-e during the bunmei-kaika (文明開化, Japan's Westernization movement during the early Meiji period). Ukiyo-e fell so far out of fashion that the prints, now practically worthless, were used as packing material for trade goods. When Europeans saw them, however, they became a major source of inspiration for Impressionist, Cubist, and Post-Impressionist artists, such as Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...

, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Claude Monet

Claude Monet

Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...

, Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...

, Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt

Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...

, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...

and others. This influence has been called Japonisme. The prints also influenced early Modernist poetry in many important ways, with Imagist

Imagism

Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. The Imagists rejected the sentiment and discursiveness typical of much Romantic and Victorian poetry. This was in contrast to their contemporaries, the Georgian poets,...

poets such as Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...

, Richard Aldington

Richard Aldington

Richard Aldington , born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet.Aldington was best known for his World War I poetry, the 1929 novel, Death of a Hero, and the controversy arising from his 1955 Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Inquiry...

and Amy Lowell

Amy Lowell

Amy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.- Personal life:...

allowing them strongly to influence their imagery and aesthetic sentiments.

Though ukiyo-e saw its end in the Meiji period, and the term is not applied to works after that time, in the 20th century, during the Taishō

Taisho period

The , or Taishō era, is a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Taishō Emperor. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen to the Diet...

and Shōwa

Showa period

The , or Shōwa era, is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito, from December 25, 1926 through January 7, 1989.The Shōwa period was longer than the reign of any previous Japanese emperor...

periods, new print forms arose in Japan. The shin hanga
Shin hanga
was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods, that revitalized traditional ukiyo-e art rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods...

("New Prints") movement, a print equivalent to the Nihonga
Nihonga
or literally "Japanese-style paintings" is a term used to describe paintings that have been made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and materials...

movement in painting, drew upon ukiyo-e traditions, creating images of traditional Japanese scenes, in traditional modes and forms. Inspired by European Impressionism

Impressionism

Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

, the artists incorporated Western elements such as the effects of light and the expression of individual moods but focused on strictly traditional themes. The major publisher was Watanabe Shozaburo

Watanabe Shozaburo

was a Japanese print publisher and the driving force behind the Japanese printmaking movement known as shin hanga . He started his career working for the export company of Kobayashi Bunshichi, which gave him an opportunity to learn about exporting art prints...

, who is credited with creating the movement. Important artists included Itō Shinsui

Ito Shinsui

, was the pseudonym of a Nihonga painter and ukiyo-e woodblock print artist in Taishō and Shōwa period Japan. He was one of the great names of the shin hanga art movement, which revitalized the traditional art after it began to decline with the advent of photography in the early 20th century. His...

and Kawase Hasui

Kawase Hasui

was a prominent Japanese painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and one of the chief printmakers in the shin hanga movement.Kawase studied ukiyo-e and Japanese style painting at the studio of Kaburagi Kiyokata...

, who were named Living National Treasure

Living National Treasure (Japan)

is a Japanese popular term for those individuals certified as by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as based on Japan's...

s by the Japanese government. Shin hanga was particularly popular among Western collectors, who enjoyed images of traditional Japan and mourned its loss, as Japan pressed forward with modernization and Westernization campaigns.

The less-well-known sōsaku hanga
Sosaku hanga
was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods. It advocated the principles of "self-drawn" , "self-carved" and "self-printed" art, stressing the artist, motivated by a desire for self-expression, as the sole creator...

movement, literally creative prints, followed a Western concept of what art should be: the product of the creativity of the artists, creativity over artisanship. Traditionally, the processes of making ukiyo-e — the design, carving, printing, and publishing — were separated and done by different and highly specialized people (as was also traditionally the case with Western woodcut

Woodcut

s). Sōsaku hanga advocated that the artist should be involved in all stages of production. The movement was formally established with the formation of the Japanese Creative Print Society in 1918, however, it was commercially less successful, as Western collectors preferred the more traditionally Japanese look of shin hanga.

Making of ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e prints were made using the following procedure:

The artist produced a master drawing in ink
An assistant, called a hikkō, would then create a tracing (hanshita) of the master
Craftsmen glued the hanshita face-down to a block of wood and cut away the areas where the paper was white. This left the drawing, in reverse, as a relief print
Relief print
A relief print is an image created by a printmaking process where protruding surface faces of the matrix are inked; recessed areas are ink free. Printing the image is therefore a relatively simple matter of inking the face of the matrix and bringing it in firm contact with the paper...

on the block, but destroyed the hanshita.
This block was inked and printed, making near-exact copies of the original drawing.
A first test copy, called a kyōgo-zuri, would be given to the artist for a final check.
The prints were in turn glued, face-down, to blocks and those areas of the design which were to be printed in a particular color were left in relief. Each of these blocks printed at least one color in the final design.
The resulting set of woodblocks were inked in different colors and sequentially impressed onto paper. The final print bore the impressions of each of the blocks, some printed more than once to obtain just the right depth of color.

Important artists

Hishikawa Moronobu
Hishikawa Moronobu
was a Japanese painter and printmaker known for his advancement of the ukiyo-e woodcut style starting in the 1670s.-Early life and training:Moronobu was the son of a well-respected dyer and a gold and silver-thread embroiderer in the village of Hodamura, Awa Province, near Edo Bay. After moving to...

(1618-1694)
Torii Kiyonobu I
Torii Kiyonobu I
was a Japanese painter and printmaker in the ukiyo-e style, who is renowned for his work on Kabuki signboards and related materials. Along with his father Torii Kiyomoto, he is said to have been one of the founders of the Torii school of painting....

(c.1664-1729)
Suzuki Harunobu
Suzuki Harunobu
was a Japanese woodblock print artist, one of the most famous in the Ukiyo-e style. He was an innovator, the first to produce full-color prints in 1765, rendering obsolete the former modes of two- and three-color prints. Harunobu used many special techniques, and depicted a wide variety of...

(1724-1770)
Torii Kiyonaga
Torii Kiyonaga
This article is about the ukiyo-e artist; for samurai named Kiyonaga, see Naito Kiyonaga and Koriki Kiyonaga. was a Japanese ukiyo-e printmaker and painter of the Torii school. Originally Sekiguchi Shinsuke, the son of an Edo bookseller, he took on Torii Kiyonaga as an art-name...

(1752-1817)
Utamaro
Utamaro
was a Japanese printmaker and painter, who is considered one of the greatest artists of woodblock prints . His name was romanized as Outamaro. He is known especially for his masterfully composed studies of women, known as bijinga...

(ca. 1753-1806)
Sharaku
Sharaku
is widely considered to be one of the great masters of the woodblock printing in Japan. Little is known of him, besides his ukiyo-e prints; neither his true name nor the dates of his birth or death are known with any certainty...

(active 1794-1795)
Hokusai
Hokusai
was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting...

(1760-1849)
Toyokuni
Toyokuni
Utagawa Toyokuni , also often referred to as Toyokuni I, to distinguish him from the members of his school who took over his gō after he died, was a great master of ukiyo-e, known in particular for his Kabuki actor prints...

(1769-1825)
Keisai Eisen
Keisai Eisen
Keisai Eisen was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist who specialised in bijinga . His best works, including his ōkubi-e , are considered to be masterpieces of the "decadent" Bunsei Era...

(1790-1848)
Kunisada
Kunisada
Utagawa Kunisada was the most popular, prolific and financially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan...

(1786-1865)
Hiroshige
Hiroshige
was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ....

(1797-1858)
Kuniyoshi (1797-1861)
Kunichika
Kunichika
was a Japanese woodblock print artist. Talented as a child, at about thirteen he became a student of Tokyo's then-leading print maker, Utagawa Kunisada...

(1835-1900)
Chikanobu
Toyohara Chikanobu
, better known to his contemporaries as , was a prolific woodblock artist of Japan's Meiji period.-Names:Chikanobu signed his artwork . This was his...

(1838-1912)
Yoshitoshi
Yoshitoshi
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was a Japanese artist.He is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing. He is additionally regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of feudal Japan, and the first years of...

(1839-1892)
Ogata Gekko
Ogata Gekko
was a Japanese painter and woodblock print artist of the ukiyo-e genre.Gekkō's work was originally closely based upon that of Kikuchi Yōsai; an he was inspired by Hokusai, creating a series of one hundred prints of Mount Fuji...

(1859-1920)

External links

A Guide to the Ukiyo-e Sites of the Internet

Ukiyo-e in "History of Art"
History of Ukiyoe
http://221.191.65.126/list_f?clscd=2010220Ukiyoe collection from Edo-Tokyo Museum
Edo-Tokyo Museum
The is a museum of the history of Tokyo, established in 1993. The main features of the permanent exhibitions are the life-size replica of the Nihonbashi, which was the bridge leading into Edo; the Nakamuraza theatre; scale models of town; and buildings from the Edo, Meiji and Shōwa periods.The...

]
Kuniyoshi Project
Gallery with a lot of info
Overviews of the Printmaking Process detailed description of the stages of printmaking with many illustrations
Viewing Japanese Prints
What is a Print? An excellent flash-demonstration of the printmaking process
Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Video: Pictures of the Floating World
Universes in Collision: Men and Women in Nineteenth Century Japanese Prints
Hokusai Online Exhibition; Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/ukiyo-e/
http://learningobjects.wesleyan.edu/blockprinting Ukiyo-E Techniques, an interactive collection of videos and animations demonstrating the techniques of master printmaker Keiji Shinohara.
Ukiyo-e Caricatures 1842-1905 Database of the Department of East Asian Studies of the University of Vienna
Japanese Erotic Art in the "History of Art"
Biographies of over 100 Japanese print-making artists

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Making of ukiyo-e

Important artists

See also

Further Reading

External links