Japanese ukiyo-e

Japanese ukiyo-e
Name	Ukiyo-e
Caption	Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Year	Edo period–Meiji period
Type	Woodblock print, painting
Medium	Ink and color on paper
Location	Various collections

Japanese ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e emerged as a popular visual culture centered on urban Edo during the early modern period, producing woodblock prints and paintings that documented and shaped tastes across Osaka, Kyoto, Kamakura, Nagasaki, and beyond. Artists responded to demand from merchant-class patrons and intertwined with theatrical life around the Kabuki Theatre, publishing firms like Tsutaya Jūzaburō and Fujiokaya to circulate images of actors, courtesans, landscapes, and historical scenes. Overlapping with developments in Tokugawa Ieyasu’s political order and later encounters with the Meiji Restoration, ukiyo-e both reflected and influenced aesthetic exchange involving figures such as Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige, Kitagawa Utamaro, Tōshūsai Sharaku, and foreign collectors including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Vincent van Gogh.

Definition and Origins

Ukiyo-e began as illustrated books and paintings depicting the "floating world" culture tied to Yoshiwara pleasure quarters, Kabuki Theatre districts, and travel sites like Tōkaidō. Early practitioners worked in print workshops in Edo and Kyoto alongside publishers such as Tsutaya Jūzaburō, and drew on precedent from artists like Kano school painters and Tosa school traditions. Patronage by urban merchants, as well as censorship under shogunal edicts like those associated with Tenpō Reforms, shaped subject choices and circulation practices. The craft also intersected with foreign contacts at ports such as Nagasaki and with printed book formats like surimono produced for elite circles connected to families such as the Matsudaira clan.

Historical Development and Periods

Ukiyo-e evolved through identifiable phases: early book illustrations and paintings in the 17th century in Edo and Kyoto; the popularization of multicolor nishiki-e in the 1760s under innovators tied to publishers like Tsutaya Jūzaburō; the golden age of actor prints and bijin-ga in the late 18th and early 19th centuries featuring artists from schools including Utagawa school, Nishikawa Sukenobu’s followers, and Katsukawa school. Later developments during the Bakumatsu and Meiji Restoration period saw stylistic shifts influenced by imports and exhibitions connected to entities like the International Exhibition (1862) and collectors such as T. H. Huxley and William Anderson. The circulation of works into Europe and United States collections—through traders and figures like Philippe Burty—prompted Japonisme in Parisian circles including Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, and James McNeill Whistler.

Techniques and Materials

Print production required collaboration among designer, carver, printer, and publisher, often contracting workshops in Edo or Osaka to produce impressions on handmade washi paper using ink and natural pigments imported via ports like Nagasaki. Innovations such as benizuri-e and full-color nishiki-e depended on registration techniques developed by publishers exemplified by Tsutaya Jūzaburō and printers who worked with carvers influenced by Okumura Masanobu. Specific color effects used pigments such as aizuri derived from Prussian blue brought by traders, and embossing techniques appear in deluxe surimono commissioned by poetry circles associated with figures like Matsuo Bashō’s followers. Workshops maintained specialist tools, for example baren and kento, and skills transmitted through lineages within schools like the Utagawa school and Katsukawa school.

Major Artists and Schools

Prominent names include Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige, Kitagawa Utamaro, Tōshūsai Sharaku, Suzuki Harunobu, Toshusai Sharaku (alternate reading), Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Utagawa Kunisada, Katsukawa Shunshō, Nishikawa Sukenobu, Okumura Masanobu, Torii Kiyonaga, Hishikawa Moronobu, Shiba Kōkan, Chōbunsai Eishi, Kubo Shunman, Yashima Gakutei, Keisai Eisen, Masanobu Okumura, Hiroshige II, Hokusai Katsushika (alternate ordering), and later Meiji-era figures such as Yoshitoshi Tsukioka and Kawase Hasui. Schools and lineages include the Utagawa school, Torii school, Katsukawa school, Kano school, Tosa school, Maruyama school, and regional centers in Osaka associated with artists like Ryūsai Shigeharu and Utagawa Kuniteru.

Themes and Genres

Common genres encompassed bijin-ga (prints of courtesans and beauties) linked to Yoshiwara and publishers like Tsutaya Jūzaburō; yakusha-e (actor prints) tied to Kabuki Theatre and actors such as Ichikawa Danjūrō and Bando Tamasaburo; musha-e (warrior prints) referencing episodes from Genpei War narratives and historical figures like Minamoto no Yoshitsune; meisho-e (views of famous places) exploring routes like the Tōkaidō and landmarks such as Mount Fuji; shunga erotic prints circulated in private networks connected to families like the Tokugawa clan; and surimono produced for poetry circles involving names like Matsuo Bashō’s disciples. Subject matter also ranged to depictions of flora and fauna influenced by naturalists including Kaempfer-linked specimens imported through Nagasaki.

Influence and Reception

Ukiyo-e shaped domestic taste across Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka and influenced Meiji modernization projects and visual culture in institutions such as the Imperial Household Agency’s collections and exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. In the West, prints entered collections of figures like Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, and Whistler, spurring Japonisme and affecting Impressionist and Post-Impressionist composition, color, and cropping. Scholars and dealers including Ernest Fenollosa, Okakura Kakuzō, Edward Sylvester Morse, Felice Beato, and Basil Hall Chamberlain played roles in transmission, while museums such as the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée Guimet, and Tokyo National Museum established major collections and influenced curatorial narratives.

Preservation and Collections

Major institutional holdings of prints and paintings are held by the British Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Tokyo National Museum, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (duplicate institution noted by collectors), Rijksmuseum, Musée Guimet, Victoria and Albert Museum, Hermitage Museum, and private collectors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson’s circle and dealers like Sotaro Kondo. Conservation addresses challenges of paper acidity, light sensitivity of pigments like Prussian blue, and provenance issues traced through auction houses including Sotheby's and Christie's. Digital initiatives by institutions such as the British Museum and regional repositories in Nara and Kyoto aim to catalogue prints alongside exhibition efforts at venues like the Tokyo National Museum and international loan programs with the Musée d'Orsay and Rijksmuseum.

Category:Ukiyo-e