Introduction
When looking at such iconic images as The Great Wave off Kanagawa, do most viewers consider the reason for the depicted subject matter? The effort of collaboration required to create such a print, moving from the hands of the publisher to the artist, then on to the woodcarver, and finally, the printmaker? In other words, do they understand the essence of Ukiyo-e? Ukiyo-e is the term for Japanese woodblock prints, but it encapsulates more than just the simple usage of printmaking materials. Ukiyo-e is a style born of the Edo period, and therefore the pieces it produced were of the same ilk; the flourishing economy, lack of outside threats, and general tranquility of the period can be clearly seen in the pictorial depictions of lifestyle so common to Ukiyo-e.
The accompanying images are chosen because of the versatile picture of Ukiyo-e that they paint ; they depict the different genres of subject matter within the traditional movement of Ukiyo-e, and these more traditional images contrast with the new schools branching off in more modern times. From beautiful portraits of nature to portraits of beautiful women, these classical prints are offset by the modern prints that follow them, full of bright, neon colors – yet the traditional motive of Ukiyo-e as a style peeks through – the resolute subject matter of lifestyle in harmony with the natural world stays true.
The first print is the work of Utagawa Hiroshige, an installation in the Uozukushi (every variety of fish) series called Isaki and Kasago Fish. This print is an intricate work of bold red and black lines, depicting two gape-jawed fish diagonally crossed over each other. The fish stand out against the blank cream of the paper in the background, accompanied only by a simple, scallion-looking plant placed behind them. Drama and tranquility are equally abundant in this piece; the red-rimmed eyes and sharp teeth of the scarlet kasago fish are almost shocking, especially in contrast with the plain background and bright green plant emerging from behind it. The placement of the fish gives them movement, even removed from any landscape.
These details are characteristic of the subgenre of Ukiyo-e this piece belongs to, called Kachō-ga/Kachō-e, or “bird and flower”. This style is, of course, not only relegated to depictions of birds and flowers but rather encompasses a large variety of nature imagery, in a specific and concentrated way. Kachō-e prints often depicted just one plant, accompanied by one animal, in a tranquil portrait of nature focused specifically on the beauty of the few subjects it depicts. These subjects were often insects, birds, fish, and flowers. This style is influenced by a long tradition of Chinese paintings depicting birds and flowers but largely differed in the simple fact that the Japanese prints were created for viewing enjoyment, rather than as any sort of reference.
The second print, Three Beauties of the Present Day, belongs to an equally, if not more popular subcategory of Ukiyo-e called Bijin-ga, or “pictures of beautiful people”. Bijin-ga prints depicted real women, as well as idealized standards of beauty at the time. Many created in the Edo period were depictions of courtesans (or prostitutes) of the “green house” brothels in the walled, northern quarter of Yoshiwara.
The Japanese culture towards prostitution was not exactly positive, but the attitude at the time towards prostitutes was more of a pitying one than a condemnation of immorality. These women were portrayed by some of the most popular artists at the time, like Utamaro Kitagawa, Eizan Kikugawa, and Eisen Ikeda. Utumaro was the artist of Three Beauties of the Present Day, and actually strayed from the norm of painting courtesans in this case, instead choosing to depict three urban women.
The women in this print are Takashima Hisa, on the left, Naniwa Kita, on the right, and Tomimoto Toyohinaa, in the middle. The three were renowned for their beauty throughout the city, and Utumaro showcases their different stories and personalities beautifully in this work. The three women are posed triangularly – in a style of composition that would soon become much more popular after Utumaro’s creation of this print – with subtly individual expressions and outfits that give the viewer an untold insight about them. The two flanking women, Hisa and Kita, worked at their family’s teashops, which had a rivalry between them, and the woman in the middle, Toyohinaa, was a geisha.
The rivalry between the two can be seen in the way they are posed directly opposite each other, looking in each other’s direction, though the individual differences in personalities can also be seen here in Hisa’s calmer, less narrowed gaze, closed mouth, and more neutral color of dress. Toyohinna’s higher status can be seen in her placement above the other two, slightly larger and looking off into the distance, as if above it all.
Aside from the intriguing subject material of this work, the print was also special for the materials it was made out of. Utumaro made use of mica dust in the background in order to give the print a shimmering effect, and this print was also a Nishiki-e. Nishiki-e were full-color prints, created by a technique developed in the 18th century and attributed to Suzuki Harunobu, another artist well-known for his Bijin-ga prints.
By the early 20th century, the style of Ukiyo-e had branched out into several movements, many of which incorporated Western elements and merged them with the traditional imagery of Ukiyo-e. One of these movements was Sōsaku-hanga, or “creative prints”, which left the four-person process of printmaking on the wayside. Instead, this movement focused on individual artists, who created the print wholly by themselves. The initialization of the Sōsaku-hanga movement is attributed to Kanae Yamamoto, with his creation of the Fisherman print in 1904, and was followed up by many different artists eager to fully immerse themselves in the creative process, from start to finish. Much like the painting movement Yōga, which came about at the same time, this style incorporated many Western ideals of art and delved into the inspiration of such movements as abstraction, folk art, naturalism, and impressionism.
The third print shown here, entitled 16th Exhibition of Japan Advertising Artists Club, was created by Tadanori Yokoo using photolithography and is a prime example of the changes in Japanese printmaking over the years.
Simply by looking at the print, you can see the vast differences between it and many traditional Ukiyo-e. Using the earlier Isaki and Kasago print as a parallel, given the similar subject matter of a fish in nature, these differences become even starker. The red and black ink coloring of Hiroshige’s fish pale in comparison to the flat, bold expanses of color that Yokoo uses. Unlike the earlier style of the Kachō-e print, the background is colorful and full, the green waves of the bottom and the flowering blue bushes of the top enclose the image, and the way the cascading waves and shining sun direct the eye toward the central dripping fish is far more exciting and emboldening than peaceful and natural.
Another movement that emerged from Ukiyo-e, but followed its themes more closely, was the shin-hanga (new prints) movement, following the Sōsaku-hanga movement in 1915. Shin-hanga artists reverted to the traditional method of the four-person process. In this process, a publisher (hanmoto) would designate the subject matter of a print and pass this idea on to an artist (eshi) who could depict the idea before passing it over again to a woodcarver (horishi). The woodcarver would translate this onto a woodblock and complete the final passing to a printer (surishi), who would make the prints by applying ink onto the woodblock and printing it onto paper.
In addition to sticking by this collaborative process, the Shin-hanga movement also maintained the traditional subject matter of Ukiyo-e, such as the previously discussed Kachō-e and Bijin-ga styles (as well as popular genres like Shunga, a euphemism for sexual imagery meaning “pictures of spring”, and Yakusha-e, depictions of the actors in the wildly popular art form of Kabuki theatre). Artists rejected the Western individualism ingested in the Sōsaku-hanga movement alongside the inspirations of impressionism that were conglomerated, and focused only on the latter, rather than the former.
The influences of impressionism in combination with the traditional landscape subject material can be seen in the print Fujiyama from Okitsu by Hiroshi Yoshida. As the title suggests, the print depicts a view of the famous mountain Fujiyama, with a peaceful mirror image of the mountain reflected on the lake beneath it. The pale pink light of dawn peaks out from behind the mountain, and the influences of French impressionism can be seen here, in the soft early morning sky. This piece is a landscape, a popular subject of traditional Ukiyo-e, and the image of Fujiyama is a particularly iconic one; the artist Katsushika Hokusai even created a book entitled One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji completely filled with depictions of the mountain.
The collaborative element of Ukiyo-e being revived in the Shin-Hanga movement means that the many professionals working together to create these prints are able to boost and lift eachother, as well as provide influence and inspiration. Watanabe Shozaburo, who published Yoshida’s works, was a large name in the movement and published many other Shin-Hanga pieces.
Landscape imagery served the pleasure-fulfilling purpose of Ukiyo-e perfectly – by allowing common people who may not have had much chance to travel and see the full expanse of nature to bask in its beauty. This in general, was one of the aspects of Ukiyo-e that made it so widely popular. The duplicatable nature of woodblock prints meant that art was now a commodity enjoyable for people of all classes. No longer were artworks relegated only to the noble classes; now commoners could cheaply enjoy and purchase them.
The final print chosen is another example of the individualistic movement of Sōsaku-hanga. They had a motto of “jiga jikoki jizuri” – meaning, self-drawn, self-carved, self-printed- and were more open to experimentation of method and technique. While Sōsaku-hanga’s sister movement, Shin-hanga, celebrated the collaborative and consumptive nature of traditional Ukiyo-e, the creative prints movement saw their process and product as more of fine art than a means of mass reproduction. This concept of individualism was not simply an issue of the art world, furthermore, but a reflection of shifting cultural values and philosophical discussions.
Fishing Village of Hokuriku by Hiroshi Yoshida is a vignette of a fisherman’s village, empty but for a collection of both bright and dull buildings, with a fisherman ambling his way along the path between them. Yoshida, a pupil of Hiratsuka Unichi and true to the values of the creative print movement, is a versatile artist who experiments with many mediums and styles. He has dabbled in both realistic and abstract depictions, works using color or only black and white, and has tried his hand at European wood engraving as well as traditional Japanese woodcuts.
Ukiyo-e is an incredible example of Japanese art because the woodblock prints give such an excellent level of insight into Japanese culture. In them, we can see shifts in beauty standards and aesthetic preferences, and understand more about class hierarchies, intellectual ideologies, and schools of thought. They tell the stories of actors and courtesans, teashop workers, and nobles alike.
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