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UKIYO-E AND OTHER PRINTS

The earliest prints to be made in Japan were ordered by the Empress in 664. Although a lot of early prints are repetitive, the better ones have fine color and line and are Buddhist in origin and theme. The techniques were brought from China. One acquired merit by regularly drawing, painting, or printing as many Buddhist images as possible, so educated devotees and priests produced a great number. This practice weakened with declining religious fervor from the fourteenth century. Since they were both cheap and portable, prints then became souvenirs of temples and shrines for visiting pilgrims.

Some people collect these prints, but the main collecting channels are described in the next sections. However, an interesting collection of old Buddhist prints was described by Meher McArthur in Daruma 16. Such prints are mainly sought by scholars or those deeply interested in religion, as their focus is on parts of religious life foreign to us.

Fig. 64 Hiroshige (1797-1858),"100 Views of Famous Places in Edo-Kawaguchi no Watashi Zenkōji," woodblock print, 1857. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Note: Ukiyo-e were made before concepts of limited editions existed; artists' birth and death dates may be uncertain. Standard sizes include Oban: 15 x 10 in (38 x 25 cm), but sometimes half an inch smaller; Chūban: 8 x 11 in (20 x 28 cm), and Hosoban: 6 x 12 in (15 x 30 cm).

Fig. 65 Masanobu (1686-1764)."Man and Three Ladies," woodblock print, sumizuri-e (black and white print). ca. 1715. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Woodblock Prints (Ukiyo-e)

Woodblocks were long used to publish books with or without images, but ukiyo-e pictures of the Floating (or entertainment/ pleasure) World started from around 1665 when Japan finally enjoyed peace and rising prosperity. With money but little freedom, townsmen devoted themselves to pleasure: time was often spent drinking or at brothels and kabuki theaters.

People wore fancy clothes and enjoyed extravagant lifestyles and to express themselves sought an art form unlike those of the court or Buddhist monks. Ukiyo-e thus celebrated a hedonistic society. Sensual courtesans in the most popular and stylish costumes, and dramatic scenes from kabuki plays were the main subjects. The works did not moralize like priests, nor depict an aesthetically ideal landscape like court painters.

Initially, the subject matter of ukiyo-e was up-market, with masked references to Chinese literature or Genji Monogatari episodes. After about 1800, however, woodblock prints no longer appealed only to this leisured, educated class, but to ordinary people with everyday interests. Nowadays, those same people would focus on television or movies, but the kabuki theater then was where the heart -throbs were. Many woodblock prints show an actor in a favorite, climactic pose (mie) and were bought by his fans as they were cheap and attractive mementos.

All over the land a main reason for buying prints made in Tokyo was to see the latest fashions worn by actors and courtesans. In this sense, prints foreran fashion magazines and television. With the regular, enforced sojourns by clansmen in the capital, many prints got taken home to the clan lands, so men and women could see the latest clothes and hairstyles prevailing in the capital.

Top fashion photographs are snapped by the very best today but with Edo prints, there was a difference. The best-connected aspiring artists got into famous Kanō and Tosa school studios and could expect a secure career, but the ukiyo-e world was treated by the samurai class with disdain: those without the right connections had to risk the nether world of ukiyo-e, because that was where the work was and fame might come among the townspeople (but maybe not money). Colleague Peter Ujlaki says that apart from Hokusai (who did get painting and surimono or print commissions, but was careless with money like the typical Edokko so always out of pocket), artists accepted lower prestige to work in ukiyo-e, generally out of a love for the lifestyle of the theater and amusement districts, so they worked for love not lucre.

Fig. 66 Toyoharu (1735-1814),"Eiegance: Six Clear Rivers," woodblock print. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Fig. 67 Kiyonaga (1752-1815),"Minami Jūnikō," woodblock print, ca. 1785. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Fig. 68 Koryūsai (fl.late 18th c.), chūban, woodblock print, ca. 1770. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Fig. 69 Utamaro,"Three Beauties," one of triptych, ca. 1800. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Fig. 70 Utamaro,"Teachings in Pa rents' Eyes-Bakuren" (abandoned woman), woodblock print, ca. 1802. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

A third, if less common, reason for the existence of prints was to advertise a particular establishment or kimono design. The Floating World, epitomized by Yoshiwara in Edo, was very competitive, and since some prints bear the names of geisha houses, it is reasonable to see a connection. Many prints of women name their place of work. Thus, prints would have been a good way to show which lovely women worked where and what they wore.

Occasionally, a woman might give a regular client a print of herself as a token of affection or to remind him where to find her-in much the same way that name cards are used today! Some experts, however, do not share this reasoning.

Judging by the current passion for erotic prints and animation, another merit of prints must have been that they fed the Japanese people's insatiable appetite for the visual. As a northern European, in the wrong mood I find the visual clutter of Japan (and Hong Kong, etc.) an eyesore, but there is also something charming about a narrow street full of vertical signs-ergo these prints.

It is interesting to note that Japanese cartoons and fashions are increasingly popular in other Asian countries.

Popularity in the West

Westerners have always felt the pull of ukiyo-e, probably because they show landscapes, clothing, and a way of life quite unlike anything in Europe or America. As a result, many dealers, curators, and collectors have considerable knowledge of the subject, while museums, auction houses, and stores are well stocked with prints.

Woodblock images of the Floating World became popular from the 1860s in the West, captivating people with their vitality, fresh ness, and charm, and causing the Japonisme art movement. Ukiyo-e were collected by Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Monet. In a way, Westerners are responsible for rescuing ukiyo-e from oblivion, as most indigenous critics scorned them in the later 1800s, though aware that the print artist Utamaro was different and that Westerners loved Hokusai and Hiroshige too.

Ukiyo-e influence is seen in masters like Van Gogh, Whistler, and Toulouse-Lautrec, dating from the time when ukiyo-e by unknowns were said at times to be but liner in a box of curios packed for European travelers, or sold by the pound to curio collectors, sometimes after being dirtied to make them appear "older."

One secret of the enduring popularity of ukiyo-e is the way some artists went beyond the Japanese tradition of using line and sensitivity to convey scenes, and incorporated perspective (putting Westerners at ease) in scenes that are still quintessentially exotic, thereby inducing frissons of both recognition and shock. Other reasons are the soaring creative imagination shown in choosing scenery (see later, Hokusai and Hiroshige), the human warmth of genre scenes like the inebriated revelers and snoozing dogs in Kuniyoshi's "Yoshiwara Embankment by Moonlight," and the playfulness of Hiroshige's "Ratcatcher" or Kuniyoshi's "Six Immortal Poets as Cats," which satirizes the Chinese tradition of making respectful images of famous authors. Through punning allusions to them or their poems, it depicts six fat cats socializing: the great Heian era poets (Rokkasen) Ariwara no Narihira, Ono no Komachi (the lasting image of female beauty and poetic excellence), Sōjō Henjō, Bunya no Yasuhide, Kisen Hōshi, and Ōtomo no Kuronushi.

Fig. 71 Toyokuni I (1769-1825), "Today's Match of Beauties-Saké Cup as Mirror," woodblock print, ca. 1820. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Fig. 72 Toyokuni I,"Fireworks at Ryōgoku," woodblock print, triptych, ca. 1790. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Fig. 73 Hokusai (1760-1849),"Kanadehon Chūshingura Scene VI," wood block print, ca. 1806. Photo courtesy Mita 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 Mt Fuji through stormy waves whose dragon claws threaten to sink the boats of frightened fishermen. "Red Fuji" lends drama and new pigments to the nation's sacred symbol. He combined man and nature in unemotional but highly dramatic ways. Hokusai taught that everything is a circle or triangle. He imposed geometry on nature in the most extraordinary ways. In "Yotsuya;' the ground, rocks, and water are striated into shapes we seldom see though they are possible, while his "Sumō Wrestlers" are given smooth buttocks and calves but their knees and ankles have weird skin folds; both deformations lend shape to the compositions. Hokusai worked day and night and left countless works (estimates range from 35,000 to 70,000). The big prints in good condition are beyond the means of most collectors but others, like book designs and cartoons, are very reasonably priced-and still magical.

Fig. 80 Hiroshige,"100 Views of Famous Places in Edo- Draper's Shop, Dai Temma-chō," woodblock print, 1858. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Fig. 81 Eisen (1790-1848)."Eight Scenes of Edo-Ryōgoku Bridge Reflected in the Evening Sun," wood-block print, ca. 1844. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Hiroshige (1797-1858) did all kinds of prints, including bijin (beauties) and actors, but became famous for his "53 Stations of the Tōkaidō" series. He had a special talent for depicting man in a sensitive, poetic relationship to the landscape. His countryside had a lyrical beauty marking it out from every other. Hiroshige etched pictures of rural Japan into the minds of Westerners. His overall production was huge, so is still available to modest collectors. Prices are rising and will continue to do so because Hiroshige is an artist with a wonderful imagination and eye. Gentler than Hokusai, he added a poetic softness which endears him to all.

Ukiyo-e's Decline and Fall

Eizan and Eisen are good artists of the early nineteenth century; both teacher and pupil were talented at bijin. Toyokuni was a prolific printmaker and collector of pupils (their names fill pages) whom readers will find in quantity in antique shops, such as his pupil Kuniyoshi who had a strong imagination, seen for example in his "Musashino Subduing a Whale."

Toyokuni II made some memorable prints, such as the "Eight Famous Views" print of a mountain temple where the rain plays a heroic role. Kunisada (later dubbed Toyokuni III) is an affordable and attractive artist-hence more likely to appear in a collection than pre-1800 artists. Though Kunitora is not so well known, a personal favorite is a print, "Lingering Snow on Mt Hira,'' from his "Eight Views of Ōmi" series.

After the 1860s, traditional printmaking began to lose some of its impetus and the colors also began to change with the introduction of new chemical pigments from Germany. There was a great vogue for the equivalent of horror movies: gory scenes, massacres, and ghosts! The leader, Yoshitoshi, specialized in bloodthirsty, demonic pictures. One famous but gruesome woodblock print (Fig. 93) shows a very pregnant woman hung upside down and a man about to slash her open.

Kiyochika (1847-1915) was an all-rounder who had a poetic eye like Hiroshige, and is generally considered the last real ukiyo-e artist and perhaps first modern print artist. He made many Tokyo street scenes, including imports like railways-very popular in the 1870s and 1880s. He is also remembered for battlefront pictures of the Sino- and Russo-Japanese Wars of 1895-1905, which endow the scenes with an unexpected soft beauty.

Fig.82 Yoshitora (1830-87),"British Man," woodblock print, 1861. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Fig. 83 Sadahide (1807-73),"Walking the Dog," woodblock print, 1860. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Foreigners in Prints

The existence of the Dutch trading post on Dejima, Nagasaki, had allowed the entry of European subject matter such as ships, techniques like etching and perspective, and even for two months in 1818, a Dutchwoman, Mrs Blomhoff, and the nanny for her son.

A few print publishers emerged from the 1740s offering Nagasaki prints of Dutchmen and their Javanese servants, Dutch ships, and pictures of Nagasaki Harbor. The work was inbred, with little new to offer, but occasional excitement, such as the arrival of a Russian fleet in 1853, augmented the repertoire. Nevertheless, many Japanese artists went to Nagasaki to study "Dutch learning" (rangaku) which included art techniques like perspective and sciences like botany and anatomy.

This confrontation with foreign learning brought about radical change, immensely broadening the scope of Shiba Kōkan, Aōdō Denzen, and Hiraga Gen'nai. In a history of Japanese painting and prints, these are important names but they are not usually collectible because of money and rarity; ordinary Nagasaki prints are affordable, though few appear on the market.

Although Western learning had seeped into Japan from Nagasaki for two and a half centuries, the Nagasaki tradition petered out-or moved to Yokohama-after the treaty ports were opened. Perhaps one could mention, as similar, the prints of the locomotives connecting Osaka and Kobe by Konobu and others, or Tokyo and Yokohama in the 1870s.

The arrival of Westerners brought new buyers and subjects like Yokohama prints, with their emphasis on strange foreign buildings (like banks), customs and inventions, but also new publications such as papers and magazines. These and cameras gradually took over the role of ukiyo-e, though newspapers sometimes asked ukiyo-e artists for illustrations.

Fig. 84 Hironobu (fl.1851-70),"Actor Ōtani Tomomatsu," ōban, 1865. Large format bust portraits were extremely rare then in Osaka's printmaking decline. Photo courtesy Peter Ujlaki.

Fig. 85 Urakusai Nagahide (active 1805-42),"Courtesan in Costume Parade from Gion, Kyoto," hosoban stencil print, 1814.Dark-skinned assistant mimics Dutchman's servant. Photo courtesy Pete Ujlaki.

In summing up Yokohama prints, Roger Keyes states that "The most observant and interesting of these artists was Utagawa Sadahide (1807-73), while others included Yoshi'iku, Yoshikazu and Yoshitora;' pupils of Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Common were sets of prints of Americans, Englishmen, Russians, Frenchmen, and Dutchmen, with an occasional Chinese. A lot of misinformation was added to the false stereotypes.

Triptychs also showed buildings, home interiors, parades, and ships. The peak was 1860-62, shortly after the port opened, but the vein soon withered.

Osaka Prints

Edo was the center of ukiyo-e production and supplied the whole country with the names you will be familiar with, but Osaka had its own tradition. These Kamigata-e (Kyoto-Osaka prints) pleased theater-goers there by depicting local heroes. Osakans were addicted to the theater, so most prints are of actors.

There was also a tradition of making prints using very expensive printing techniques-mica, metallics, and embossing-for special customers and theatrical fan clubs. Works by Hokushū, Hokuei, Hirosada, and Konobu may appeal to some buyers. The first three did mainly actor prints, which are still available, while the fourth did new technology (Bunmei Kaika) prints, for example of railways. These are harder to find (Figs. 84, 85, 88-90, 92).

The Meiji Break

Narazaki Muneshige in The Japanese Print says that "Many Meiji prints were characterized by the lavish use of a bright scarlet color, and they are sometimes referred to as aka-e ('red pictures'). A peculiar shade of lavender was also used." He adds that ukiyo-e smoothed the path from feudalism to Westernization by visual means, till they were replaced by cameras and presses.

The Meiji Revolution seemed likely to sweep away all of Japan's artistic traditions until Ernest Fenollosa's persuasive warnings caused important people to stop and think. A dual system grew up whereby artists knew of the other but mainly followed either the old or the new path and so methods and materials.

Kuroda Kiyoteru and Fujishima Takeji were leading Western-style painters, whereas Tomioka Tessai, Takeuchi Seihō, Yokoyama Taikan, and Maeda Seison worked in the Japanese tradition. Later, Umehara Ryūzaburō worked in a post-Impressionist style. Okada Kenzo was a leading abstract painter of the time, while Higashiyama Kai'i painted magical hillsides. He was given commissions by temples and palaces.

Dozens of artists headed for the West, especially Paris, where Foujita (Fujita Tsuguharu) stayed for decades, was admired for his whites and fine line, became a Christian, and even made church murals. The poetic Takehisa Yumeji succeeded there too and is drooled over now by Japanese girls.

Fig. 86 Kuniyoshi,"Go Players," woodblock print, triptych, 1853. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Fig. 87 Toyokuni Ill (1786-1864), "Sumō (Kimenzan vs. Shiranui)," triptych woodblock print, 1857. Photo courtesy Mita Arts Gallery.

Fig. 88 Shunchō (later Hokushō, fl. 1822-32),"Nakamura Utaemon Ill's seven roles in one play," Osaka print, 1823. Ōban harimaze prints like this hint of the extent of Osaka people's infatuation with Utaemon. Photo courtesy Peter Ujlaki

Fig. 89 Shunbaisai Hokuei,"Nakamura Utaemon IV as Sumō Wrestler," surimono style ōban, 1837. Shunbaisai was a leading Osaka print figure, active 1824-37. This may have been his last print as his death is announced along the right edge. Photo courtesy Peter Ujlaki.