The Japanese Art Of Ukiyo-e
Kishor Gordhandas
2 October 2008, 10:33The Art Of The Japanese Common People
Ukiyo-e is an art of the townsman. The word Ukiyo-e means literally “Pictures of the Floating World”. It is the Japanese term for genre pictures, and many of the styles of graphic art that arose in the Edo period (1603 – 1867). Ukiyo-e was originally a Buddhist term used to describe a misanthropic view of life and the mundane world. However, during the latter part of the fifteenth century it began to be used in poetry and literature to express the idea that life in this world is nothing more nor less than a passing dream. In 1661, a book was published that stated : “To gaze at the moon or at the snow or at the flowers or at the autumn leaves, to sing songs, to drink wine, to enjoy life with a light heart, to not even feel pain if one’s hand is cut, to float along without a care like a gourd on the water – that is the true meaning of ‘Ukiyo’. Thus it had come to be used to describe a carefree philosophy of life, the-eat-drink-and-be-merry-for-tomorrow-may-die syndrome.
Hishikawa Moronobu (1618 – 1694) originated the art of Ukiyo-e when he moved to Rdo from his birth place in Boshu in 1658 and began illustrating books and drawing single pictures of the daily life activities of the general populace, scenes in the pleasure districts of Yoshiwara, famous prostitutes, and explicit love scenes. Although at present they are represented by wood cut prints, in the beginning they were painted and coloured by hand.
Ukiyo-e was the designation given the expensive world of pleasure, the kabuki theatre and the Yoshiwara brothel area, where all the types of erotic satisfaction could be obtained. Due to the great number of pictures of all kinds published at this time, Ukiyo-e was already fast becoming a household word throughout the length and breadth of Japan. It must be noted, however, no artist of the day referred to himself as a Ukiyo-e Painter, but rather as a Yamato painter or a Nihon Cartoonist. It was much later that Ukiyo-e became the designation for a serious art genre.
The Ukiyo-e style is primarily a style of painting, which emerged with a clearly separate identity in the seventeenth century, but whose origins were complex and traceable to a number of different artists of the late 16th and the early 17th Centuries, all of whom showed an unusual interest in daily life, fashionable clothes and vices, and who were seeking a pictorial language adequate to convey their worldly outlook. These early artists expressed themselves in paintings only, the Ukiyo-e wood cut did not arrive until the second half of the Seventeenth century.
Beginning with Moronobu, (17th Century) Harunabo (1725-1770), Kiyonaga (1752-1815), Utamaro (1753-1806), Sharaku (Ca. 1786), Hokusai (1760-1849), Toyokuni (1769-1825), Hiroshige (1797-1849, all gained popularity as representative artists, and left behind a legacy of extremely superior works. Kiyonaga and Utamaro painted pictures mainly of charming beauties, Sharaku for the most part made portraits of unique, deformed actors, which are of the highest value, but his works are rare. Hiroshige and Hokusai excelled in landscapes, while Toyokuni trained many disciples and painted mainly pictures of actors.
Among Ukiyo-e painters, Moronobu’s Ukiyo-e wood block prints were printed in simple black, with a bit of vermillion or yellow brushed in upon occasion. Thus he was unable to express the gorgeous beauty or the styles of clothing that were popular in his day. But Moronobu also did a certain amount of work in his style, and one of his paintings has become so famous that it was used on a Japanese postage stamp! There were other artists who spent their entire lives producing only hand painted portraits of beautiful women, including Kaigetsudo Ando and Miyagawa Choshum.
Among the Ukiyo-e Painters, the most famous was Kaigetsudo Ando. His works are extremely stereotyped portraits of beautiful, full-bodied women who face either left or right and stand with their bodies bent backward, and executed in bold lines. He used clay paints to express the gorgeously elegant patterns of their clothing.
Utamaro: Beauty Print Master
My favourite Ukiyo-e artist, is UTAMARO (1753 – 1806). Utamaro began by imitating Kiyonaga, but in 1791, he began working in a revolutionary, original style that immediately made him the most popular artist of the day. It was a close-up style of beauty (o-kubi-e) that was inspired by the close-up actor portrait-print, a sparse, economical style. Utamaro expressed the idealized beauty of women always using the fewest possible lines and colour, highlighting the clear and fair; not only courtesans but children, and even female divers. The use of a very thin red line for outlining the face and arms, as seen in a few prints, was one more technique developed by this great artist.
He brought these techniques to their full development in his “Poems of Love” Series in which he used the close-up portrait form to express the deep thought of middle-aged women through themes from classical poetry, and in his “Popular Beauties” Series, in which the famous courtesans of the day are portrayed in three-quarter view. Utamaro’s popularity continued to soar to even greater heights, and he accepted commissions from literally all the printers in Edo. The names of more than 40 different printers appear on the paintings of Utamaro in existence today. This great overproducing on the part of the artist resulted in a serious drop in quality during his later years. In 1806, Utamaro was imprisoned for 50 days on a charge of insult to the reigning Shogun Hideyoshi, for the publishing of the print “Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his Five Wives at a Cherry Blossom Viewing Party”. The shock of imprisonment was a fatal blow to this sensitive artist, for he died a very short time after his release.
Hiroshige: Perfection Of The Landscape Print
Another of my favourite Ukiyo-e artist is Ando Hiroshige, who was known as “Perfecter Of The Landscape”. Ando Hiroshige (1797–1858) was inspired to become an artist by the landscape prints of Hokusai. In 1833, upon the publication by the Hoeido Publishing House of his “Fifty-Three Stages Of The Tokaido”, Hiroshige completely took over the eminence previously held by Hokusai as top landscape print artist of the day. The series was a result of sketches Hiroshige had made in 1832 during his first trip along the Tokaido. There are many pictures, books and also playing cards that describe scenes along this important highway, At least half a dozen playing cards have been made on the topic of Hiroshige’s “53 Stations To Tokaido” with 52 cards and Jokers! During his lifetime, Hiroshige produced thirteen different series of scenes along this same highway, indicating the extent of the popularity of his work in this one category alone.
Hiroshige Ando started to learn drawing at the age of 15 with Ukiyo-e artist Toyo Hiro Utagawa. All the landscapes in his famous series were drawn by him at 53 stops during his trip from Edo (Tokyo) to Kyoto accompanied by Shogun. Although those of Utagawa School, including Kunisada, Kuniyoshi and their many students, continued to produce Ukiyo-e Prints until 1907, it is safe to say that the traditions, the technique, and the power of expression of the classical Ukiyo-e print died with Hiroshige in 1858.
Ukiyo-e Playing Cards
Japanese playing card makers over the last 40 years, have issued an intermittent, yet persistent trickle of pictorial packs of cards featuring prints of Ukiyo-e types. These French-suited, 52 cards and jokers are probably intended primarily as tourist souvenirs. There have been dozens of playing cards packs on the theme of Ukiyo-e including Hiroshige’s “53 Stations To Tokaido”. All the packs have different back designs yet there are many Ukiyo-e packs which have similar paintings on the face cards of different packs yet with different suit symbols. The playing cards manufactured are mostly from Japan but there are also examples from Austria, Spain, and France.
Cards from some playing decks show just a single head, usually of a supposedly beautiful woman, but most of the packs also contain a good portion of cards showing groups of people. Several have gold edges, and are nicely boxed, so that even if more or less useless for playing with them, they make handsome souvenirs, which was probably their purpose anyway.
Playing cards shown here are mostly painted by Utamaro, Hioroshige, Sharaku, and a few others. Finally, there is a lovely 78-card Japanese Ukiyoi-e Tarot deck of 78 cards by Angel & Co. These are 78 lovely paintings based on Ukiyo-e along with a booklet for predicting the future with these Tarot cards. The vitality, freshness and charm of the Ukiyo-e Tarot deck by Artist Koji Furuta captures the beautiful “Floating World” of Ukiyo-e art which was popular during the 17th and 18th Centuries in Japan.
Other than several Hiroshige playing cards, the few Japanese Ukiyo-e Playing cards are Tenga-Kajinmeguri Playing Cards, Nippon Playing Cards, and Ukiyo-e HANGA, by four different artists including Utamaro and Hiroshige. There are also a few Ukiyo-e Packs with gilt edges. One lovely such pack of gilt-edged 52 cards and a Joker comes in a Japanese light wooden box, with a silk scroll and images of the full Ukiyo-e playing cards printed on thin paper and cylindrically kept inside the box!
There are some packs of cards featuring Ukiyo-e figures, made by France, and a double deck, named Japan by Piatnik & Son of Vienna, Austria. There are beautiful Ukiyo-e Rigid Fans, that come in various sizes, from mini to, say, around 10” in length and many folding fans, painted on silk as well as on paper with Ukiyo-e figures on each.
By category and by country, the Ukiyo-e playing cards and Ukiyo-e Tarot deck of 78 cards are some of the best in my collection ranking with the playing cards of France and Spain as the topmost in my collection of cards that covers over 70 countries of the world!
