“(1) The charm and history of ukiyo-e first half”
Summarizing the charm, it will be 7 items.
(1) The price was low and the common people could easily obtain it.
The reason for this was that it was possible to print a large number of prints, and Japanese paper was widely used and the cost was low.
(2) The maximum size of the picture is 400mm in width and 300mm in length, making it easy to carry and store, making it a local souvenir.
(3) The picture was distorted and looked like a cartoon, and it looked beautiful with multicolor printing.
(4) It was used in news and advertisements at the time and incorporated into economic activities.
(5) Bromides of geisha, kabuki actors, and beautiful teahouse girls.
(6) Japonism has become popular overseas and has become a teaching material for understanding Japanese culture.
(7) Since photographs were not commonly used at that time, there are no simple wooden houses left today, unlike stone houses in the Europe.
In addition, the lifestyle of the common people is also preserved, making it a valuable document.
Now let’s take a closer look at its features.
“Ukiyo-e” is a genre painting drawn from the Edo period to the Taisho period. This world is full of unpleasant things, so the kanji for “Ukiyo” was applied to people who want to live happily and enjoy this world.
Ukiyo-e is characterized by its depiction of the ukiyo-e world, such as busho-e'' depicting military commanders,bijin-ga” of beautiful women in red-light districts, and “yakusha-e” of kabuki actors.
There are two types of ukiyo-e: woodblock prints and nikuhitsuga.
Woodblock prints are ukiyo-e prints printed on woodblocks. It is an epoch-making technology that allows you to print hundreds of the same picture on a single woodblock.
There are two types of woodblock prints: hanbonsashie, which are illustrations for reading books, and ichimaie, which are independent illustrations. Hand-drawn paintings are one-of-a-kind and expensive.
As for woodblock prints, even ordinary people could buy ukiyo-e at a low price.
The production of woodblock prints was divided among ‘painters’ (Eshi), ‘carvers’ (Horishi), and ‘printers’ (Surishi).
A painter needs a talented painter. A carver must have the skill to carve faithfully. A surishi is someone who carefully prints on paper and completes it.
By dividing labor, we were able to mass-produce high-quality ukiyo-e prints in a short period of time.
First, 200 prints are called “Syozuri”. “Atozuri” is the additional printing. The quality of the post-printing is lower than that of the “Syozuri” because the woodblocks also deteriorate.
Nikuhitsuga is a one-of-a-kind ukiyo-e that is drawn by an artist with his own handwriting.
I will explain the history of Ukiyo-e.
Nikuhitsuga hand-drawn painting was drawn in the early Edo period.
With the development of woodblock printing technology, the single black print known as “Sumizurie” became “Benizuri-e,” which used two or three colors with the addition of crimson. It changed to “Nishikie” of printing.
The number of nishiki-e painters increased, and ukiyo-e became a big boom. In the early Edo period (1603-1680), around 1670 (Kanbun 10), ukiyo-e began to be drawn.
(End of the first half)
“(1) The charm and history of ukiyo-e second half”
The originator of ukiyo-e is Iwasa Matabee, the official painter of the Echizen clan.
Iwasa Matabei studied under the Tosa school and the Kano school, and drew ukiyo-e with original drawings.
Hishikawa Moronobu is the founder of woodblock printing. He drew the illustrations for the reading book with sumizuri-e in one black color.
In the middle of the Edo period (1681-1780), around 1688 (the first year of the Genroku era), a technique of adding 2-3 colors by hand to sumizuri-e was born.
They are tan-e, which uses tan (red pigment produced in the Bengal region of India), and beni-e, which uses red from safflowers.
However, it takes time and effort to paint each sheet by hand, and it is difficult to achieve the same finish, and it is not stable.
Around 1716 (Kyoho 1), Urushi-e (lacquer painting), in which pigments were mixed with lacquer, appeared.
Around 1745, Benisuri-e appeared, in which colored plates were carved for each color to be used and superimposed on the sumi-zuri-ban.
In 1765 (2nd year of Meiwa), nishiki-e, a polychrome print, started by Suzuki Harunobu was born.
This nishiki-e made ukiyo-e very popular, and the number of excellent painters increased rapidly.
In the latter half of the Edo period (1781-1867), there were Utagawa Toyokuni, an actor painting, Utagawa Kunisada, a beautiful painting, and Utagawa Kuniyoshi, a warrior painting. sect flourishes.
As for the technique, tsuzukie, which becomes a single picture by connecting multiple pictures, such as 2 or 3 pictures, has appeared. It can be enjoyed as a single picture, but by connecting three pictures, it became a powerful picture with movement.
It is a technical problem that it cannot be produced with a single large print. It is said that it was difficult to make a large sheet of paper, and that both carvers and printers had to divide the paper into two or three sheets because the larger the picture, the more difficult it became.
“Landscape painting” was established in the late Edo period. Katsushika Hokusai’s “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” and “Utagawa Hiroshige’s “Fifty-three Stages of the Tokaido” are famous.
In the early Meiji period (1868-1895), when the age of the samurai ended and the port of Yokohama was opened with the Meiji Restoration, ukiyo-e prints depicted westernized cities.
That is “Kaikae” or “Yokohamae”.
Foreigners, people in foreign clothes, steamships and automobiles were depicted in the exotic enlightenment paintings, which immediately captured the hearts of the world.
Also, in 1870 (Meiji 3), the first daily newspaper in Japan, the Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun, was made into an easy-to-understand picture, the Nishiki-e Shimbun.
Based on the articles in the Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, a nishiki-e version of the Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun was published and became popular.
After that, ukiyo-e declined due to the spread of photography, which takes time to draw a picture, is inferior to newspapers in terms of breaking news, and photography.
(2) Ukiyo-e artist
Introducing the representative ukiyo-e painters (painters) of the Edo period.
(1) Hishikawa Moronobu, an ukiyo-e artist active in the early Edo period.
He is the person who established ukiyo-e, and is called the originator of ukiyo-e. His masterpiece is “Mikaeri Bijin”.
“Mikaeri Bijin” is a hand-drawn ukiyo-e, and is famous for being used as a postage stamp design.
She is stopped by a woman in a bright red costume and looking back.
You can only see her profile from here, but you can enjoy her fashion trends at the time from her back.
Her hair style is a “ball knot” in which the tips of her lowered hair are tied in a loop.
It’s a popular hairstyle these days. The comb in her hair looks like a luxury tortoise shell.
Her furisode is woven with a small flower pattern on a glossy red background, and the “flower circle pattern” of large chrysanthemums and cherry blossoms is scattered.
This was also popular at the time. These patterns are probably expressed with kanoko shibori, silk thread, gold thread embroidery, or gold leaf.
(2) Harunobu Suzuki Ukiyo-e artist active in the middle of the Edo period.
He became popular for his slender and delicate portraits of beautiful women. He played a decisive role in the birth of Nishiki-e.
His representative work is “Osen no Chaya”. “Osen-no-chaya” is especially the location of “Kagiya,” a mizuchaya (a shop set up for people visiting temples and shrines to take a break) in the Yanaka Kasamori Inari precincts.
His daughter, Osen, was especially popular, and there is a record that everyone went to a locksmith just to see Osen.
The person on the left of the image is Osen Kasamori. It was like Osen “an idol you can meet”.
She did a good job of portraying the cute appearance and slender figure of the sen. The color woodblock prints depicting Osen were sold like hot cakes.
(3) Toshusai Sharaku, an ukiyo-e artist active in the middle of the Edo period.
He is also famous as a mysterious painter who suddenly disappeared after printing a picture of actors in a short period of about 10 months.
His representative work is the Ookubi-e “Edo Bei of Oniji Otani III”. “Otani Oniji III no Edobei” depicts the moment when a villain attacks his opponent for a large sum of money.
Even so, it is extremely deformed and overwhelms the viewer with its exaggerated and fearless expression. Both hands sticking out of his pocket create a kind of eerie,
“Hey! This is the quintessence of Yakusha-e!” As a characteristic of Ookubi-e, because the area where the picture is drawn is narrow,
There was a weak point that it was difficult to understand the scene situation of the actors.
However, Sharaku took advantage of this and symbolically deformed each part of the face, and furthermore, by making the hands produce distinctive nuances, he fully showed his outstanding individuality.
(4) Hiroshige Utagawa Utagawa Hiroshige, an ukiyo-e artist active in the late Edo period.
He became a very popular painter for his woodblock prints of landscapes, and is said to have influenced Western painters such as Van Gogh and Monet.
His representative work is Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido. At the time when the 53 Stations of the Tokaido were in the midst of a travel boom, Ukiyo-e landscape paintings that made you feel like you were on a trip.
It was very popular among the people of the Edo period. Hiroshige, the author, became as popular as Hokusai as an ukiyo-e artist.
After that, Hiroshige worked on more than 20 Tokaido series in his lifetime, but his most popular was “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido” published mainly by the publisher Hoeido.
(5) Katsushika Hokusai, one of the leading ukiyo-e artists of the late Edo period.
He published over 30,000 works during his lifetime. He is a world-famous painter and is widely known overseas for his work “HOKUSAI”.
His representative work is “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji”. A work that can be said to be the true value of Hokusai. It would not be an exaggeration to call it the most famous Japanese painting in the world.
In “Thirty-six Views of Mt.Fuji: The Great Wave off Kanagawa”, if you look at the wave crests of the splashes, you can understand why Hokusai is called “the magician of vision”.
Hokusai may have wanted to express his awe of nature in this work.
Towards the top of Mt.Fuji, the part that has become a huge wave crest at the moment of crashing.
Waves have been drawn by various artists since ancient times, but there is no wave that is so designed and has a sense of bizarreness.
(6) Utagawa Kuniyoshi One of the leading ukiyo-e artists of the late Edo period.
He created many attractive works with novel designs, fantastic ideas, and high drawing skills.
His representative work is “In the Kodairi of Soma, Masakado’s princess Takiyasha uses magic to test Oya Taro Mitsukuni, who gathers allies, to fight and destroys him (commonly known as Soma no Kodairi).”
As a result of pursuing dynamism in “Soma no Kodairi”, the three pieces of large-sized nishiki-e are likened to one screen, and the composition that draws the motif so large that it seems to protrude out.
After Kuniyoshi, many painters followed suit, and it became a new nishiki-e expression.
Until then, it was customary for large-format nishiki-e to be drawn in such a way that they could be viewed one by one.
Classification Classification by Ukiyo-e subject matter
(1) Figure painting
1) Onna-e (paintings of beautiful women) Prostitute “Matsubaya Shohi” by Utamaro Kitagawa, Geisha “Geisha with Shamisen” by Shigemasa Kitao, Popular girl “Osen Kasamori” by Harunobu Suzuki
2) Actor picture Actor picture “Ichikawa Danjuro’s Takenuki Goro” by Torii Kiyomasa Actor portrait “Ichikawa Danjuro’s Shibaraku” by Katsukawa Shunsho
3) Warrior painting “Ichikawa Danjuro’s Shibaru” by Katsukawa Shunsho
(2) Landscape painting
1) Early landscape painting Ukie “Ryokugashi Bridge in the Evening Cool Ukie” by Masanobu Okumura
2) Western-style landscape painting One Hundred Famous Views of Edo “Kameido Umeya Pagoda” by Hiroshige Utagawa
(3) Flower and bird painting
1) Birds and flowers “Ikaru white powder” by Hokusai Katsushika
2) Beast “Sakura ni Tsunagi Monkey” by Hiroshige Utagawa
3) Insect “Dragonfly Butterfly” by Utamaro Kitagawa
4) Fish “Sea Bream Sansho” by Hiroshige Utagawa
(4) Other
1) Caricatures and riddles
Puzzle game “Minamoto no Yorimitsu Kokan Tsuchigu-saku Yokai-zu” by Kuniyoshi Utagawa
Caricature “Mikake Haiko is a great person” by Kuniyoshi Utagawa Namazu-e “Shinyoshihara Onamazu Yurahi” artist unknown
2) Monogatari-e Monogatari Konjaku Monogatari “Fujiwara Yasumasa Playing the Flute in the Moonlight” by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka
3) Kaika-e Yokohama-e “Kannagawa Yokohama New Port Map” by Utagawa Sadahide
4) Shunga
Shunga needs an explanation, so I will summarize it.
In the Europe, when people think of ukiyo-e, they often think of shunga. There are two kinds of erotic prints, one called “dangerous painting”.
For example, the type that draws legs peeking out from a kimono and exudes vague eroticism. The other is a more blatant, genuine shunga.
The beauty of shunga surprised Westerners. Writer Edmond de Goncourt wrote in his Diary of Goncourt: Notes on Literary Life:
“The other day, I bought a collection of Japanese obscene art. I am greatly delighted, amused, and fascinated.
“I can’t see it.” It disappears beyond that unbridled fantasy.”
(4) Ukiyo-e museums around Japan
We will introduce recommended art museums and museums.
We have selected 16 major ukiyo-e art galleries and museums throughout Japan.
A brief summary of the name, location, and content of the exhibition.
From the north, there are Yamagata Prefecture, 2 Tochigi Prefectures, Saitama Prefecture, 4 Tokyo Prefectures, Chiba Prefecture,
Shizuoka Prefecture 2, Gifu Prefecture, 2 Nagano Prefectures, Osaka Prefecture, Nara Prefecture, and Yamaguchi Prefecture.
(1) Hiroshige Museum Hiroshige Bijutsukan, a museum related to Tendo Hiroshige (Yamagata Prefecture)
In the latter half of the Edo period, the Tendo Oda clan, which was struggling financially, requested Utagawa Hiroshige to create a painting to give as a gift in return for donations and debts. This art museum opened in 1997 with this original painting, which is now called “Tendo Hiroshige”. The collection includes the works of the first Hiroshige, but also the works of the four generations.
(2) Kitagawa Utamaro’s original paintings are a must-see! “Adachi Kokokan” Adachi Kokokan (Tochigi Prefecture)
An exhibition of antiques, including ukiyo-e, collected by Koshichi Adachi, who ran a kimono wholesaler since the end of the Edo period. The earthen warehouse built in the Edo period gives you the feeling of going back in time. Among the highlights are Hiroshige’s “Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido” and Kitagawa Utamaro’s original painting “Yamauba and Kintaro”.
(3) “Kawanabe Kyosai Memorial Museum” where you can encounter amazing ukiyo-e prints from the Meiji period (Saitama Prefecture)
A museum founded by the great-grandson of Kawanabe Kyosai, an ukiyo-e artist and Kano school painter. About 40 of Kyosai’s diverse works will be on display from among the 3,200 items in the museum’s collection, with themes changing every one to two months.
(4) Many of Hiroshige’s original paintings “Nakagawa Bato Hiroshige Art Museum” Nakagawa Machi Konobatou Hiroshige Bijutsukan (Tochigi Prefecture)
A museum centered on the “Aoki Collection” donated by the bereaved family of local businessman Fujisaku Aoki. In addition to a large number of original paintings by Hiroshige, there are Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Kobayashi Kiyochika’s ukiyo-e from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji era, and 75 works are always on display. It is gaining popularity for its unique exhibitions.
(5) Familiar with “Mikaeri Bijin Zu”! Hishikawa Moronobu Memorial Museum Hishikawa Moronobu Kinenkan (Chiba Prefecture)
A memorial hall built in Awanokunihota (now Kyonan Town), where the founder of ukiyo-e, Hishikawa Moronobu, was born. In addition to introducing Moronobu’s life and activities in Edo through his works, the history of ukiyo-e and the manners and customs of the common people of Edo are also on display.
(6) Ukiyo-e All-Stars at Tokyo National Museum (Tokyo)
The Tokyo National Museum, which has collected the treasures of Japanese art, has about 12,000 ukiyo-e works, mainly from the Matsukata collection. There are masterpieces of ukiyo-e from the early Edo period to the end of the Edo period to the Meiji era, and there are permanent exhibitions of ukiyo-e in the 10th room of the main building.
(7) Edo-Tokyo Museum Edo-Tokyo Hakubutsukan (Tokyo)
At the “Edo-Tokyo Museum”, which was created with the concept of looking back on the history and culture of Edo-Tokyo and thinking about the future, you can appreciate ukiyo-e prints in a wide variety of exhibitions that reproduce the Edo period.
(8) Ota Kinen Bijutsukan (Ota Kinen Bijutsukan), boasting one of the world’s leading collections
An ukiyo-e museum that opened in 1980 based on the ukiyo-e collection of the late industrialist Seizo Ota V. The museum’s 14,000 collections and special exhibitions are highly acclaimed worldwide.
(9) The Sumida Hokusai Museum, located in the hometown of the world-famous ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (Tokyo)
Opened in 2016 in Sumida Ward, where Katsushika Hokusai, a world-famous ukiyo-e artist, spent most of his 90-year life. Hokusai’s world-famous masterpieces and the works of his disciples are introduced, and elaborate exhibitions are held.
(10) Shizuoka City Tokaido Hiroshige Museum, Shizuoka City Tokaido Hiroshige Bijutsukan (Shizuoka Prefecture)
Located in Yui Honjin Park, which was built on the ruins of the Honjin of Yuijuku, the 16th post town on the Tokaido, this art museum displays ukiyo-e, mainly works by Hiroshige. Among the works in the collection, there are also valuable works such as “Kiso Kaido 69th Station / Nakatsugawa (Rain)”, which is only a few in the world.
(11) Nihon Kiyoe Hakubutsukan (Nagano Prefecture), a famous art museum introduced in the Michelin Guide: The Japan Ukiyo-e Museum
Over 40,000 items, mainly by Hokusai and Hiroshige, are based on the 200-year-old “Sakai Collection” of five generations of the Sakai family, who were wealthy merchants in Matsumoto during the Edo period. Known as one of Japan’s leading ukiyo-e museums in terms of both quality and quantity, it has been awarded two stars in the Michelin Green Guide.
(12) “Hokusaikan” Hokusaikan (Nagano Prefecture), displaying many of Hokusai’s hand-drawn masterpieces in his later years
A museum dedicated to Hokusai’s works, built in Obuse, the hometown of Hokusai’s disciple Kozan Takai and where Hokusai stayed in his later years. It has a large collection of hand-painted paintings, including “Fujikoshi Ryuzu”, and in the stall exhibition room, there are two festivals with Hokusai’s ceiling paintings “Phoenix” and “Dragon” and “Onnami” and “Onnami”. You can see the stalls.
(13) Appreciation of Ukiyo-e in the scenery seen by Hiroshige “Nakasendo Hiroshige Museum” Nakasendo Hiroshige Bijutsukan (Gifu Prefecture)
The museum is located in Oijuku, which was the most prosperous of the 69 post towns on the Nakasendo, with the largest number of inns. The collection is centered on Hiroshige’s ukiyo-e prints donated by the late Haruo Tanaka, who was a collector in Ena City.
(14) Kamigata Ukiyoekan, a treasure trove of Kamigata theater actor paintings in Dotonbori (Osaka)
In the Edo period, Dotonbori was a major entertainment area lined with theaters. The Kamigata Ukiyo-e Museum, located in front of Hozenji Temple on the south side, features pictures of popular actors from the Bunka and Bunsei eras, such as Utaemon Nakamura III and Nizaemon Kataoka VII. About 30 works are always exhibited according to the plan and theme.
(15) Ukiyo-e seen in the ancient capital is exceptional “Nara Prefectural Museum of Art Kenritsu Bijutsukan” (Nara Prefecture)
The museum was opened in 1973 after receiving donations of ukiyo-e, Japanese paintings, and various crafts from the Edo period collected by Kankata Yoshikawa, a historian of customs and Japanese-style painter. Since then, ukiyo-e has been further enriched by donations such as the Yura Collection. There are many opportunities to see masterpieces by Utamaro, Hokusai, and Hiroshige.
(16) Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e are lined up! “Yamaguchi Prefectural Hagi Art Museum/Urakami Memorial Hall”
A collection of approximately 5,500 ukiyo-e prints (as of 2016). Among them are Hokusai’s rare Bijin Okubi paintings “Furyu Nakutenakuse Telescope”, “Thirty-six Views of Mt. , Kuniyoshi, and other masterpieces from Edo period ukiyo-e artists to modern times.
(5) Ukiyo-e museums overseas
Japan opened its doors to the world in 1854 at the end of the Edo period.
I think it is well known that Japan has changed greatly under the influence of Europe and the United States, but in fact Europe has also been greatly influenced by Japan.
Japanese culture such as manga, ukiyo-e, fabrics, furniture,
and kimonos were novel in Europe, and artists were shocked. This gradually led to a movement in the art world known as “Japonism.”
When Japan opened its doors to the world in 1854, Japanese culture began to be introduced to the West.
From the latter half of the 1850s, Japanese products gradually began to attract attention in Europe.
Trade between Japan and Europe has been going on since before the Edo period,
but the period when the greatest number of Japanese art works flowed overseas was after the Meiji Restoration.
In England, Japanese pottery and ornaments were introduced at the London World Exposition of 1862, and interest in Japan increased.
Faced with such a treasure trove, it was foreign hired workers and foreign businessmen who were even more fascinated by Japanese art than the Japanese.
Foreigners who opened their eyes to Japanese art, such as the hired foreigner Edward Morse, who is famous for discovering the Omori Shell Midden, Ernest Fenollosa,
who came to Japan through his introduction, and the railroad magnate Charles Freer, are Japanese art lovers.
We will continue to build a rare Japanese art collection while interacting with.
The exhibition of Japanese art overseas is the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, based on the collections of Morse, Fenollosa, Bigelow,
and others in the United States. The Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, built by Freer.
In addition, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guimet Museum of Oriental Art in Europe, and the British Museum are famous.
A large number of collectibles are stored in overseas museums and remain to this day.
Photographs of the collections of each art museum and museum are also published as books.
The treasured Ukiyo-e Taikan published by Kodansha (published since 1987) is compiled in a book.
Volume 1 The British Museum Ⅰ
Volume 2 The British Museum Ⅱ
Volume 3 British Museum III
Volume 4 British Library/Ashmolean Museum/Victoria and Albert Museum I
Volume 5 Victoria and Albert Museum II
Volume 6 Guimet Museum 2
Volume 7 Guimet Museum 2
Volume 8 Paris National Library
Volume 9 Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Volume 10 Genoa Museum of Oriental Art I
Volume 11 Genoa Museum of Oriental Art II
Volume 12 Berlin Museum of Oriental Art
