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87-634: After retiring from service to the shogunate, he became a teacher to numerous apprentices in poetry and painting. He was among the first to apply Kanō techniques to ukiyo-e printmaking, inventing key new techniques along the way, such as fuki-bokashi , which allowed for replicating color gradations. Most famously, he was the teacher of Kitagawa Utamaro and Utagawa Toyoharu . Sekien is best known for his mass-produced illustrated books of yōkai that had appeared in Hyakki Yagyō monster parade scrolls. The first book proved popular enough to spawn three sequels,

174-481: A creative end in itself, and did not restrict their print media to the woodblock of traditional ukiyo-e. Prints from the late-20th and 21st centuries have evolved from the concerns of earlier movements, especially the sōsaku-hanga movement's emphasis on individual expression. Screen printing , etching , mezzotint , mixed media , and other Western methods have joined traditional woodcutting amongst printmakers' techniques. Early ukiyo-e artists brought with them

261-458: A dozen separate blocks to handle the different colours and half-tones. His restrained, graceful prints invoked the classicism of waka poetry and Yamato-e painting. The prolific Harunobu was the dominant ukiyo-e artist of his time. The success of Harunobu's colourful nishiki-e from 1765 on led to a steep decline in demand for the limited palettes of benizuri-e and urushi-e , as well as hand-coloured prints. A trend against

348-411: A greater level of realism into his prints that emphasized the differences between the actor and the portrayed character. The expressive, contorted faces he depicted contrasted sharply with the serene, mask-like faces more common to artists such as Harunobu or Utamaro. Published by Tsutaya, Sharaku's work found resistance, and in 1795 his output ceased as mysteriously as it had appeared; his real identity

435-461: A long depression. These popular colour prints came to be called nishiki-e , or 'brocade pictures', as their brilliant colours seemed to bear resemblance to imported Chinese Shuchiang brocades , known in Japanese as Shokkō nishiki . The first to emerge were expensive calendar prints, printed with multiple blocks on very fine (or finer than standard) paper with heavy, opaque inks. These prints had

522-626: A long history preceding these late-era masters. The Japanese landscape differed from the Western tradition in that it relied more heavily on imagination, composition, and atmosphere than on strict observance of nature. The self-proclaimed "mad painter" Hokusai (1760–1849) enjoyed a long, varied career. His work is marked by a lack of the sentimentality common to ukiyo-e, and a focus on formalism influenced by Western art. Among his accomplishments are his illustrations of Takizawa Bakin 's novel Crescent Moon  [ ja ] , his series of sketchbooks,

609-579: A painter of the Kanō school, in the 1870s Chikanobu (1838–1912) turned to prints, particularly of the imperial family and scenes of Western influence on Japanese life in the Meiji period. Aside from Dutch traders, who had had trading relations dating to the beginning of the Edo period, Westerners paid little notice to Japanese art before the mid-19th century, and when they did they rarely distinguished it from other art from

696-567: A particular influence on graphic designers and poster makers. Toulouse-Lautrec 's lithographs displayed his interest not only in ukiyo-e's flat colours and outlined forms, but also in their subject matter: performers and prostitutes. He signed much of this work with his initials in a circle, imitating the seals on Japanese prints. Other artists of the time who drew influence from ukiyo-e include Monet , La Farge , Gauguin , and Les Nabis members such as Bonnard and Vuillard . French composer Claude Debussy drew inspiration for his music from

783-418: A print, without using a printing block. Fukibokashi requires gradations of ink to be applied to the printing block. This is not a precise technique; its results are inconsistent from print to print. The technique ichimonji bokashi ( 一文字ぼかし , "straight-line bokashi") is the one associated with the works of Hokusai and Hiroshige to represent the horizon, sea, or sky. Ink is applied to one end of

870-527: A refined sense to his portraits of graceful, slender courtesans, and left behind a number of noted students. With a fine line, Eishōsai Chōki ( fl. 1786–1808) designed portraits of delicate courtesans. The Utagawa school came to dominate ukiyo-e output in the late Edo period. Edo was the primary centre of ukiyo-e production throughout the Edo period. Another major centre developed in the Kamigata region of areas in and around Kyoto and Osaka . In contrast to

957-399: A remnant of an obsolescent era. Artists continued to produce occasional notable works, but by the 1890s the tradition was moribund. Synthetic pigments imported from Germany began to replace traditional organic ones in the mid-19th century. Many prints from this era made extensive use of a bright red, and were called aka-e ('red pictures'). Artists such as Yoshitoshi (1839–1892) led

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1044-472: A series. The Hishikawa school attracted a large number of followers, as well as imitators such as Sugimura Jihei , and signalled the beginning of the popularization of a new artform. Torii Kiyonobu I and Kaigetsudō Ando became prominent emulators of Moronobu's style following the master's death, though neither was a member of the Hishikawa school. Both discarded background detail in favour of focus on

1131-470: A sophisticated knowledge of and training in the composition principles of classical Chinese painting ; gradually these artists shed the overt Chinese influence to develop a native Japanese idiom. The early ukiyo-e artists have been called "Primitives" in the sense that the print medium was a new challenge to which they adapted these centuries-old techniques—their image designs are not considered "primitive". Many ukiyo-e artists received training from teachers of

1218-517: A trend in the 1860s of gruesome scenes of murders and ghosts, monsters and supernatural beings, and legendary Japanese and Chinese heroes. His One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885–1892) depicts a variety of fantastic and mundane themes with a moon motif. Kiyochika (1847–1915) is known for his prints documenting the rapid modernization of Tokyo, such as the introduction of railways, and his depictions of Japan's wars with China and with Russia . Earlier

1305-399: A variation in lightness and darkness ( value ) of a single color or multiple colors by hand applying a gradation of ink to a moistened wooden printing block, rather than inking the block uniformly. This hand-application had to be repeated for each sheet of paper that was printed. The best-known examples of bokashi are in the 19th-century ukiyo-e works of Hokusai and Hiroshige , in which

1392-410: Is a genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna ; and erotica . The term ukiyo-e ( 浮世絵 ) translates as 'picture[s] of the floating world'. In 1603,

1479-406: Is repeated multiple times using different brushes, narrowing the space to be shaded each time. Ate-nashi-bokashi (gradation without definition) is used for soft modulations of color, such as rosy cheeks. Itabokashi , or 'block shading,' is a technique used to produce ruffled edges on areas of color. It is produced by first cutting an area slightly larger than needed for a color, then abrading

1566-500: Is still unknown. Utagawa Toyokuni (1769–1825) produced kabuki portraits in a style Edo townsfolk found more accessible, emphasizing dramatic postures and avoiding Sharaku's realism. A consistent high level of quality marks ukiyo-e of the late 18th-century, but the works of Utamaro and Sharaku often overshadow those other masters of the era. One of Kiyonaga's followers, Eishi (1756–1829), abandoned his position as painter for shōgun Tokugawa Ieharu to take up ukiyo-e design. He brought

1653-427: Is ukiyo-e; assertions that he was the genre's founder are especially common amongst Japanese researchers. At times Matabei has been credited as the artist of the unsigned Hikone screen , a byōbu folding screen that may be one of the earliest surviving ukiyo-e works. The screen is in a refined Kanō style and depicts contemporary life, rather than the prescribed subjects of the painterly schools. In response to

1740-555: The kanazōshi genre of tales of hedonistic urban life in the new capital. The rebuilding of Edo following the Great Fire of Meireki in 1657 occasioned a modernization of the city, and the publication of illustrated printed books flourished in the rapidly urbanizing environment. The term ukiyo ( 浮世 ) , which can be translated as 'floating world', was homophonous with the ancient Buddhist term ukiyo ( 憂き世 ) , meaning 'this world of sorrow and grief'. The newer term at times

1827-430: The chōnin class, who had become wealthy enough to afford to decorate their homes with them. The earliest ukiyo-e works emerged in the 1670s, with Hishikawa Moronobu 's paintings and monochromatic prints of beautiful women. Colour prints were introduced gradually, and at first were only used for special commissions. By the 1740s, artists such as Okumura Masanobu used multiple woodblocks to print areas of colour. In

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1914-550: The machishū and divided the population into four social classes , with the ruling samurai class at the top and the merchant class at the bottom. While deprived of their political influence, those of the merchant class most benefited from the rapidly expanding economy of the Edo period, and their improved lot allowed for leisure that many sought in the pleasure districts—in particular Yoshiwara in Edo —and collecting artworks to decorate their homes, which in earlier times had been well beyond their financial means. The experience of

2001-457: The Hokusai Manga , and his popularization of the landscape genre with Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji , which includes his best-known print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa , one of the most famous works of Japanese art. In contrast to the work of the older masters, Hokusai's colours were bold, flat, and abstract, and his subject was not the pleasure districts but the lives and environment of

2088-705: The Akita ranga painters of the 1770s—as were Chinese methods to create a sense of depth using a homogeny of parallel lines. The techniques sometimes appeared together in ukiyo-e works, geometrical perspective providing an illusion of depth in the background and the more expressive Chinese perspective in the fore. The techniques were most likely learned at first through Chinese Western-style paintings rather than directly from Western works. Long after becoming familiar with these techniques, artists continued to harmonize them with traditional methods according to their compositional and expressive needs. Other ways of indicating depth included

2175-637: The Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, which opened Japan to the outside world after over two centuries of seclusion . Ukiyo-e prints were amongst the items he brought back to the United States. Such prints had appeared in Paris from at least the 1830s, and by the 1850s were numerous; reception was mixed, and even when praised ukiyo-e was generally thought inferior to Western works which emphasized mastery of naturalistic perspective and anatomy. Japanese art drew notice at

2262-486: The Edo period 's chōnin , allied themselves with the court and had power over local communities; their patronage of the arts encouraged a revival in the classical arts in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In the early 17th century, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) unified the country and was appointed shōgun with supreme power over Japan. He consolidated his government in the village of Edo (modern Tokyo), and required

2349-460: The Ejima-Ikushima scandal of 1714. Kyoto native Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671–1750) painted technically refined pictures of courtesans. Considered a master of erotic portraits, he was the subject of a government ban in 1722, though it is believed he continued to create works that circulated under different names. Sukenobu spent most of his career in Edo, and his influence was considerable in both

2436-526: The Heian period (794–1185) had followed two principal paths: the nativist Yamato-e tradition, focusing on Japanese themes, best known by the works of the Tosa school ; and Chinese-inspired kara-e in a variety of styles, such as the monochromatic ink wash paintings of Sesshū Tōyō and his disciples. The Kanō school of painting incorporated features of both. Since antiquity, Japanese art had found patrons in

2523-754: The International Exhibition of 1867 in Paris , and became fashionable in France and England in the 1870s and 1880s. The prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige played a prominent role in shaping Western perceptions of Japanese art. At the time of their introduction to the West, woodblock printing was the most common mass medium in Japan, and the Japanese considered it of little lasting value. Early Europeans promoters and scholars of ukiyo-e and Japanese art included writer Edmond de Goncourt and art critic Philippe Burty , who coined

2610-769: The Kansei era (1789–1791). The ukiyo-e of the period of the Kansei Reforms brought about a focus on beauty and harmony that collapsed into decadence and disharmony in the next century as the reforms broke down and tensions rose, culminating in the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Especially in the 1780s, Torii Kiyonaga (1752–1815) of the Torii school depicted traditional ukiyo-e subjects like beauties and urban scenes, which he printed on large sheets of paper, often as multiprint horizontal diptychs or triptychs . His works dispensed with

2697-535: The Kantō and Kansai regions . The paintings of Miyagawa Chōshun (1683–1752) portrayed early 18th-century life in delicate colours. Chōshun made no prints. The Miyagawa school he founded in the early-18th century specialized in romantic paintings in a style more refined in line and colour than the Kaigetsudō school. Chōshun allowed greater expressive freedom in his adherents, a group that later included Hokusai . Even in

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2784-408: The territorial lords to assemble there in alternate years with their entourages. The demands of the growing capital drew many male labourers from the country, so that males came to make up nearly seventy percent of the population. The village grew during the Edo period (1603–1867) from a population of 1800 to over a million in the 19th century. The centralized shogunate put an end to the power of

2871-399: The 1760s, the success of Suzuki Harunobu 's "brocade prints" led to full-colour production becoming standard, with ten or more blocks used to create each print. Some ukiyo-e artists specialized in making paintings, but most works were prints. Artists rarely carved their own woodblocks for printing; rather, production was divided between the artist, who designed the prints; the carver, who cut

2958-432: The 1770s, Utagawa Toyoharu produced a number of uki-e perspective prints that demonstrated a mastery of Western perspective techniques that had eluded his predecessors in the genre. Toyoharu's works helped pioneer the landscape as an ukiyo-e subject, rather than merely a background for human figures. In the 19th century, Western-style perspective techniques were absorbed into Japanese artistic culture, and deployed in

3045-431: The 20th century there was a revival in Japanese printmaking: the shin-hanga ('new prints') genre capitalized on Western interest in prints of traditional Japanese scenes, and the sōsaku-hanga ('creative prints') movement promoted individualist works designed, carved, and printed by a single artist. Prints since the late 20th century have continued in an individualist vein, often made with techniques imported from

3132-648: The Chinese tripartite composition method used in Buddhist pictures, where a large form is placed in the foreground, a smaller in the midground, and yet a smaller in the background; this can be seen in Hokusai's Great Wave , with a large boat in the foreground, a smaller behind it, and a small Mt Fuji behind them. Bokashi (printing) Bokashi (Japanese: ぼかし) is a technique used in Japanese woodblock printmaking . It achieves

3219-549: The East. Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg spent a year in the Dutch trading settlement Dejima , near Nagasaki, and was one of the earliest Westerners to collect Japanese prints. The export of ukiyo-e thereafter slowly grew, and at the beginning of the 19th century Dutch merchant-trader Isaac Titsingh 's collection drew the attention of connoisseurs of art in Paris. The arrival in Edo of American Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 led to

3306-405: The Kanō and other painterly schools. A defining feature of most ukiyo-e prints is a well-defined, bold, flat line. The earliest prints were monochromatic, and these lines were the only printed element; even with the advent of colour this characteristic line continued to dominate. In ukiyo-e composition forms are arranged in flat spaces with figures typically in a single plane of depth. Attention

3393-513: The Meiji era. Following the deaths of Hokusai and Hiroshige and the Meiji Restoration of 1868, ukiyo-e suffered a sharp decline in quantity and quality. The rapid Westernization of the Meiji period that followed saw woodblock printing turn its services to journalism, and face competition from photography. Practitioners of pure ukiyo-e became more rare, and tastes turned away from a genre seen as

3480-549: The Tōkaidō and The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō , the latter a cooperative effort with Eisen. His work was more realistic, subtly coloured, and atmospheric than Hokusai's; nature and the seasons were key elements: mist, rain, snow, and moonlight were prominent parts of his compositions. Hiroshige's followers, including adopted son Hiroshige II and son-in-law Hiroshige III , carried on their master's style of landscapes into

3567-502: The West. Ukiyo-e was central to forming the West's perception of Japanese art in the late 19th century, particularly the landscapes of Hokusai and Hiroshige. From the 1870s onward, Japonisme became a prominent trend and had a strong influence on the early French Impressionists such as Edgar Degas , Édouard Manet and Claude Monet , as well as influencing Post-Impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh , and Art Nouveau artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec . Japanese art since

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3654-406: The aristocracy, military governments, and religious authorities. Until the 16th century, the lives of the common people had not been a main subject of painting, and even when they were included, the works were luxury items made for the ruling samurai and rich merchant classes. Later works appeared by and for townspeople, including inexpensive monochromatic paintings of female beauties and scenes of

3741-404: The beginning of this approach as a movement. The movement favoured individuality in its artists, and as such has no dominant themes or styles. Works ranged from the entirely abstract ones of Kōshirō Onchi (1891–1955) to the traditional figurative depictions of Japanese scenes of Un'ichi Hiratsuka (1895–1997). These artists produced prints not because they hoped to reach a mass audience, but as

3828-464: The brush ( kata-bake ) which is drawn across the desired portion of the printing block; this area is first wetted with a zōkin cloth, so that the ink bleeds somewhat across the wet area. This creates a gradation at the width of the brush. Straight line gradation with an uneven edge is known as ichimoji-mura-bokashi . In futa-iro bokashi ( 二色ぼかし ) two colours are worked toward each other, achieved by applying two inks to opposite edges of

3915-401: The brush. In hakkake bokashi a flat colour is printed, and then the same printing block is washed and re-brushed with a bokashi effect to overprint over the first; this technique is seen on the dark peak of Mount Fuji in Hokusai's Fine Wind, Clear Morning . O-bokashi (wide gradation). A difficult skill. To achieve gradation of a large area, the standard ichimonji technique

4002-513: The city of Edo ( Tokyo ) became the seat of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate . The chōnin class (merchants, craftsmen and workers), positioned at the bottom of the social order , benefited the most from the city's rapid economic growth. They began to indulge in and patronize the entertainment of kabuki theatre, geisha , and courtesans of the pleasure districts . The term ukiyo ('floating world') came to describe this hedonistic lifestyle. Printed or painted ukiyo-e works were popular with

4089-455: The common people at work. Established masters Eisen , Kuniyoshi , and Kunisada also followed Hokusai's steps into landscape prints in the 1830s, producing prints with bold compositions and striking effects. Though not often given the attention of their better-known forebears, the Utagawa school produced a few masters in this declining period. The prolific Kunisada (1786–1865) had few rivals in

4176-519: The depiction of courtesans and actors. As a result, many ukiyo-e artists designed travel scenes and pictures of nature, especially birds and flowers. Landscapes had been given limited attention since Moronobu, and they formed an important element in the works of Kiyonaga and Shunchō . It was not until late in the Edo period that landscape came into its own as a genre, especially via the works of Hokusai and Hiroshige The landscape genre has come to dominate Western perceptions of ukiyo-e, though ukiyo-e had

4263-412: The dominance of Harunobu's idealism by focusing on contemporary urban fashions and celebrated real-world courtesans and geisha . Koryūsai was perhaps the most prolific ukiyo-e artist of the 18th century, and produced a larger number of paintings and print series than any predecessor. The Kitao school that Shigemasa founded was one of the dominant schools of the closing decades of the 18th century. In

4350-400: The earliest beni pink and vegetable green. A great self-promoter, Okumura Masanobu (1686–1764) played a major role during the period of rapid technical development in printing from the late 17th to mid-18th centuries. He established a shop in 1707 and combined elements of the leading contemporary schools in a wide array of genres, though Masanobu himself belonged to no school. Amongst

4437-479: The earliest monochromatic prints and books, colour was added by hand for special commissions. Demand for colour in the early-18th century was met with tan-e prints hand-tinted with orange and sometimes green or yellow. These were followed in the 1720s with a vogue for pink-tinted beni-e and later the lacquer-like ink of the urushi-e . In 1744, the benizuri-e were the first successes in colour printing, using multiple woodblocks—one for each colour,

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4524-433: The edges of that area to make the transition from that color less sharp. This is commonly used in clouds and shading. Some techniques are performed freehand, without using a printing block, and results can vary considerably from print to print. Kumadori bokashi is used for finer details, such as around eyes, and requires the artist to draw with a brush loaded with ink on a wetted area; as with ichimonji bokashi ,

4611-446: The fading of Prussian blue dyes in skies and water create an illusion of depth. In later works by Hiroshige , for example the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo , most prints originally featured bokashi such as red-to-yellow-to-blue color sunrises. Gradations can be created on the blocks themselves using the itobokashi technique, or brushed on by hand using fukibokashi . They can also be done freehand directly onto

4698-499: The following decades, and violators could receive harsh punishments. From 1799 even preliminary drafts required approval. A group of Utagawa-school offenders including Toyokuni had their works repressed in 1801, and Utamaro was imprisoned in 1804 for making prints of 16th-century political and military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi . Utamaro ( c.  1753 –1806) made his name in the 1790s with his bijin ōkubi-e ('large-headed pictures of beautiful women') portraits, focusing on

4785-399: The head and upper torso, a style others had previously employed in portraits of kabuki actors. Utamaro experimented with line, colour, and printing techniques to bring out subtle differences in the features, expressions, and backdrops of subjects from a wide variety of class and background. Utamaro's individuated beauties were in sharp contrast to the stereotyped, idealized images that had been

4872-556: The human figure—kabuki actors in the yakusha-e of Kiyonobu and the Torii school that followed him, and courtesans in the bijin-ga of Ando and his Kaigetsudō school . Ando and his followers produced a stereotyped female image whose design and pose lent itself to effective mass production, and its popularity created a demand for paintings that other artists and schools took advantage of. The Kaigetsudō school and its popular "Kaigetsudō beauty" ended after Ando's exile over his role in

4959-433: The idealism of the prints of Harunobu and the Torii school grew following Harunobu's death in 1770. Katsukawa Shunshō (1726–1793) and his school produced portraits of kabuki actors with greater fidelity to the actors' actual features than had been the trend. Sometime-collaborators Koryūsai (1735 – c.  1790 ) and Kitao Shigemasa (1739–1820) were prominent depicters of women who also moved ukiyo-e away from

5046-517: The increasing demand for ukiyo-e works, Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–1694) produced the first ukiyo-e woodblock prints. By 1672, Moronobu's success was such that he began to sign his work—the first of the book illustrators to do so. He was a prolific illustrator who worked in a wide variety of genres, and developed an influential style of portraying female beauties. Most significantly, he began to produce illustrations, not just for books, but as single-sheet images, which could stand alone or be used as part of

5133-448: The innovations in his romantic, lyrical images were the introduction of geometrical perspective in the uki-e genre in the 1740s; the long, narrow hashira-e prints; and the combination of graphics and literature in prints that included self-penned haiku poetry. Ukiyo-e reached a peak in the late 18th century with the advent of full-colour prints, developed after Edo returned to prosperity under Tanuma Okitsugu following

5220-543: The last of which features yōkai mainly out of Sekien's imagination. Although sometimes described as a "demonologist," his work is better described as a literary parody of encyclopedias such as the Japanese Wakan Sansai Zue or the Chinese Classic of Mountains and Seas , which were popular in Japan at the time. His portrayals of these creatures from folklore essentially established their visual portrayals in

5307-484: The late 18th century. The 19th century also saw the continuation of masters of the ukiyo-e tradition, with the creation of Hokusai 's The Great Wave off Kanagawa , one of the most well-known works of Japanese art, and Hiroshige 's The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō . Following the deaths of these two masters, and against the technological and social modernization that followed the Meiji Restoration of 1868, ukiyo-e production went into steep decline. However, in

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5394-720: The linework. The aesthetic of flat areas of colour contrasts with the modulated colours expected in Western traditions and with other prominent contemporary traditions in Japanese art patronized by the upper class, such as in the subtle monochrome ink brushstrokes of zenga brush painting or tonal colours of the Kanō school of painting. The colourful, ostentatious, and complex patterns, concern with changing fashions, and tense, dynamic poses and compositions in ukiyo-e are in striking contrast with many concepts in traditional Japanese aesthetics . Prominent amongst these, wabi-sabi favours simplicity, asymmetry, and imperfection, with evidence of

5481-400: The norm. By the end of the decade, especially following the death of his patron Tsutaya Jūzaburō in 1797, Utamaro's prodigious output declined in quality, and he died in 1806. Appearing suddenly in 1794 and disappearing just as suddenly ten months later, the prints of the enigmatic Sharaku are amongst ukiyo-e's best known. Sharaku produced striking portraits of kabuki actors, introducing

5568-525: The number of days for each month hidden in the design, and were sent at the New Year as personalized greetings, bearing the name of the patron rather than the artist. The blocks for these prints were later re-used for commercial production, obliterating the patron's name and replacing it with that of the artist. The delicate, romantic prints of Suzuki Harunobu (1725–1770) were amongst the first to realize expressive and complex colour designs, printed with up to

5655-488: The passage of time; and shibui values subtlety, humility, and restraint. Ukiyo-e can be less at odds with aesthetic concepts such as the racy, urbane stylishness of iki . Ukiyo-e displays an unusual approach to graphical perspective, one that can appear underdeveloped when compared to European paintings of the same period. Western-style geometrical perspective was known in Japan—practised most prominently by

5742-462: The pleasure quarters was open to those of sufficient wealth, manners, and education. Woodblock printing in Japan traces back to the Hyakumantō Darani in 770 CE. Until the 17th century, such printing was reserved for Buddhist seals and images. Movable type appeared around 1600, but as the Japanese writing system required about 100,000 type pieces, hand-carving text onto woodblocks

5829-422: The poetic dreamscapes made by Harunobu, opting instead for realistic depictions of idealized female forms dressed in the latest fashions and posed in scenic locations. He also produced portraits of kabuki actors in a realistic style that included accompanying musicians and chorus. A law went into effect in 1790 requiring prints to bear a censor's seal of approval to be sold. Censorship increased in strictness over

5916-612: The prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige, most prominently in La mer (1905). Imagist poets such as Amy Lowell and Ezra Pound found inspiration in ukiyo-e prints; Lowell published a book of poetry called Pictures of the Floating World (1919) on oriental themes or in an oriental style. The travel sketchbook became a popular genre beginning about 1905, as the Meiji government promoted travel within Japan to have citizens better know their country. In 1915, publisher Shōzaburō Watanabe introduced

6003-407: The prospect of imminent poverty, buoyant and carefree, like a gourd carried along with the river current: this is what we call ukiyo . The earliest ukiyo-e artists came from the world of Japanese painting . Yamato-e painting of the 17th century had developed a style of outlined forms which allowed inks to be dripped on a wet surface and spread out towards the outlines—this outlining of forms

6090-467: The public's mind and deeply inspired other Japanese artists in his own and later eras, including ukiyo-e artists Tsukioka Yoshitoshi , Kawanabe Kyōsai , and manga artist Mizuki Shigeru . This Japanese artist–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about an etcher or maker of prints in other media (excluding engravers) is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e

6177-600: The range of subjects in the Edo prints, those of Kamigata tended to be portraits of kabuki actors. The style of the Kamigata prints was little distinguished from those of Edo until the late 18th century, partly because artists often moved back and forth between the two areas. Colours tend to be softer and pigments thicker in Kamigata prints than in those of Edo. In the 19th century, many of the prints were designed by kabuki fans and other amateurs. The Tenpō Reforms of 1841–1843 sought to suppress outward displays of luxury, including

6264-448: The refined landscapes of such artists as Hokusai and Hiroshige , the latter a member of the Utagawa school that Toyoharu founded. This school was to become one of the most influential, and produced works in a far greater variety of genres than any other school. While the late 18th century saw hard economic times, ukiyo-e saw a peak in quantity and quality of works, particularly during

6351-550: The same pair of hands. Kanae Yamamoto (1882–1946), then a student at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts , is credited with the birth of this approach. In 1904, he produced Fisherman using woodblock printing, a technique until then frowned upon by the Japanese art establishment as old-fashioned and for its association with commercial mass production. The foundation of the Japanese Woodcut Artists' Association in 1918 marks

6438-569: The term shin-hanga ("new prints") to describe a style of prints he published that featured traditional Japanese subject matter and were aimed at foreign and upscale Japanese audiences. Prominent artists included Goyō Hashiguchi , called the "Utamaro of the Taishō period " for his manner of depicting women; Shinsui Itō , who brought more modern sensibilities to images of women; and Hasui Kawase , who made modern landscapes. Watanabe also published works by non-Japanese artists, an early success of which

6525-453: The term Japonism . Stores selling Japanese goods opened, including those of Édouard Desoye in 1862 and art dealer Siegfried Bing in 1875. From 1888 to 1891 Bing published the magazine Artistic Japan in English, French, and German editions, and curated an ukiyo-e exhibition at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1890 attended by artists such as Mary Cassatt . American Ernest Fenollosa

6612-408: The theatre and pleasure districts. The hand-produced nature of these shikomi-e ( 仕込絵 ) limited the scale of their production, a limit that was soon overcome by genres that turned to mass-produced woodblock printing . During a prolonged period of civil war in the 16th century, a class of politically powerful merchants developed. These machishū  [ ja ] , the predecessors of

6699-760: The time of the early Impressionists . Early painter-collectors incorporated Japanese themes and compositional techniques into their works as early as the 1860s: the patterned wallpapers and rugs in Manet 's paintings were inspired by the patterned kimono found in ukiyo-e pictures, and Whistler focused his attention on ephemeral elements of nature as in ukiyo-e landscapes. Van Gogh was an avid collector, and painted copies in oil of prints by Hiroshige and Eisen . Degas and Cassatt depicted fleeting, everyday moments in Japanese-influenced compositions and perspectives. ukiyo-e's flat perspective and unmodulated colours were

6786-512: The tradition of making portrait prints of courtesans and actors. One of those rivals was Eisen (1790–1848), who was also adept at landscapes. Perhaps the last significant member of this late period, Kuniyoshi (1797–1861) tried his hand at a variety of themes and styles, much as Hokusai had. His historical scenes of warriors in violent combat were popular, especially his series of heroes from the Suikoden (1827–1830) and Chūshingura (1847). He

6873-469: The woodblocks; the printer, who inked and pressed the woodblocks onto handmade paper ; and the publisher, who financed, promoted, and distributed the works. As printing was done by hand, printers were able to achieve effects impractical with machines, such as the blending or gradation of colours on the printing block. Specialists have prized the portraits of beauties and actors by masters such as Torii Kiyonaga , Utamaro , and Sharaku that were created in

6960-492: Was a prominent Paris-based dealer of respected tastes whose Tokyo office was responsible for evaluating and exporting large quantities of ukiyo-e prints to the West in such quantities that Japanese critics later accused him of siphoning Japan of its national treasure. The drain first went unnoticed in Japan, as Japanese artists were immersing themselves in the classical painting techniques of the West. Japanese art, and particularly ukiyo-e prints, came to influence Western art from

7047-480: Was a set of Indian- and Japanese-themed prints in 1916 by the English Charles W. Bartlett (1860–1940). Other publishers followed Watanabe's success, and some shin-hanga artists such as Goyō and Hiroshi Yoshida set up studios to publish their own work. Artists of the sōsaku-hanga ('creative prints') movement took control of every aspect of the printmaking process—design, carving, and printing were by

7134-461: Was adept at landscapes and satirical scenes—the latter an area rarely explored in the dictatorial atmosphere of the Edo period; that Kuniyoshia could dare tackle such subjects was a sign of the weakening of the shogunate at the time. Hiroshige (1797–1858) is considered Hokusai's greatest rival in stature. He specialized in pictures of birds and flowers, and serene landscapes, and is best known for his travel series, such as The Fifty-three Stations of

7221-406: Was drawn to vertical and horizontal relationships, as well as details such as lines, shapes, and patterns such as those on clothing. Compositions were often asymmetrical, and the viewpoint was often from unusual angles, such as from above. Elements of images were often cropped , giving the composition a spontaneous feel. In colour prints, contours of most colour areas are sharply defined, usually by

7308-535: Was more efficient. In Saga, Kyoto  [ ja ] , calligrapher Hon'ami Kōetsu and publisher Suminokura Soan  [ ja ] combined printed text and images in an adaptation of The Tales of Ise (1608) and other works of literature. During the Kan'ei era (1624–1643) illustrated books of folk tales called tanrokubon ('orange-green books') were the first books mass-produced using woodblock printing. Woodblock imagery continued to evolve as illustrations to

7395-594: Was the earliest Western devotee of Japanese culture, and did much to promote Japanese art—Hokusai's works featured prominently at his inaugural exhibition as first curator of Japanese art Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and in Tokyo in 1898 he curated the first ukiyo-e exhibition in Japan. By the end of the 19th century, the popularity of ukiyo-e in the West drove prices beyond the means of most collectors—some, such as Degas , traded their own paintings for such prints. Tadamasa Hayashi

7482-468: Was to become the dominant style of ukiyo-e. Around 1661, painted hanging scrolls known as Portraits of Kanbun Beauties gained popularity. The paintings of the Kanbun era (1661–1673), most of which are anonymous, marked the beginnings of ukiyo-e as an independent school. The paintings of Iwasa Matabei (1578–1650) have a great affinity with ukiyo-e paintings. Scholars disagree whether Matabei's work itself

7569-454: Was used to mean 'erotic' or 'stylish', among other meanings, and came to describe the hedonistic spirit of the time for the lower classes. Asai Ryōi celebrated this spirit in the novel Ukiyo Monogatari ( Tales of the Floating World , c.  1661 ): [L]iving only for the moment, savouring the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms, and the maple leaves, singing songs, drinking sake, and diverting oneself just in floating, unconcerned by

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