09 - Hiroshige: Kanbara

Hiroshige: Kanbara

Landscapes were not initially a part of ukiyo-e. As a motive, it was introduced by the founder of the Utagawa school, Utagawa Toyoharu (1735?-1814). However, the great landscape master of ukiyo-e was a later member of the school: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). He firmly established landscape prints, fūkei-ga, as a sub-genre of ukiyo-e.

Hiroshige is one of the most widely known ukiyo-e artists, and one of only a few, whose name is known worldwide also by people not specifically interested in ukiyo-e. As a landscape artist, he belongs to the topmost world elite.

The print this week is Hiroshige's "Kanbara" from the series "The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō" (Hōeidō edition), from 1833-1834. "Kanbara" is the 15th station but the 16th print in the series. (There is an initial picture before the stations.)

Tōkaidō was the road connecting the capital of the Shogun, Edo, with the capital of the Emperor, Kyoto. The stations are post stations, and travellers had to have an official permit in order to cross a station. Travelling freely was not permitted in old Japan.

08 - Toyohara Kunichika: Actor Kawarazaki Gonnosuke as Daroku

Toyohara Kunichika - Actor Kawarazaki Gonnosuke as Daroku - approx. 1869

For Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900), kabuki was a great passion and his most important works were yakusha-e. With one foot in the Meiji era, he was one of the last ukiyo-e masters.

This print is Actor Kawarazaki Gonnosuke as Daroku, and was made about 1869. While the title, as well as literature to which I have access, only says Kawarazaki Gonnosuke, this most likely is Kawarazaki Gonnosuke VII, although I am not entirely certain of the number.

The picture is a yakusha-e, a portrait of a kabuki actor, but also an okubi-e, which is the term for "big head" portraits. The colours illustrate an innovation within ukiyo-e during Kunichika's career: the introduction of aniline colours to Japan. Strong red, blue, and purple aniline shades became common in prints, and they were sometimes exaggeratedly used in the last phase of ukiyo-e, during the Meiji era.

In Kabuki, red make-up indicates anger, forcefulness, and obstinacy.

07 - Hokusai: Daruma and a Courtesan

Hokusai: Daruma and a Courtesan

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is one of the internationally most famous masters of ukiyo-e. Although he is best known for his woodblock prints, the picture I chose for this week is a painting. It is a mitate-e hanging scroll, depicting Daruma and a courtesan. Hokusai painted it in the beginning of the 1800s.

Mitate is usually translated as "parody" and a mitate-e is then a "parody picture". This translation is quite confusing, since mitate-e contains many forms of pictures. What they all have in common is, that they play with double meanings, symbols, analogies, and associations, often related to literature, legends, or history. One form of mitate-e contrasts impossible combinations or opposites. An historical person or environment and a contemporary one, a peasant and a nobleman, high and low, good and bad.

It is very difficult to understand mitate-e without profound knowledge of Chinese and Japanese classics, symbols, and history. It is even more difficult than that. It is hard to understand that a picture is a mitate-e. All those layers of hidden meanings might easily pass unnoticed.

In this painting Hokusai contrasts Daruma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, with a courtesan. The spiritual and the worldly. To me, this is an illustration of complementary opposites.

06 - Kuniyasu: Rakuda no zu - A Pair of Camels

Kuniyasu: Rakuda no zu - 1824

This woodblock print from 1824 by Utagawa Kuniyasu (1794-1832) is named “Rakuda no zu”, and shows a pair of camels. They are probably the first camels ever on Japanese soil - namely the pair of camels that were brought to Japan by Jan Cock Blomhoff, the head of the Dutch East India Company, in 1821, as a gift to his Japanese courtesan. The camels were moved to Edo over the Tōkaidō road, and did get enormous attention. The courtesan showed them for money and is said to have made a fortune.

At least one source claims that the camels were intended as a gift to the Shogun, who refused to take them. They were then given to Blomhoff's courtesan.

The calligraphy is made by Santô Kyôden. It is a description of the animals and their tour in 1821.

Pictures like this are called Nagasaki-e. That is pictures of goods and animals from abroad, which (1639-1854) always entered Japan through the port Deshima in Nagasaki.

05 - Yoshitoshi: The Giant Carp

Yoshitoshi: The Great Carp

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) is often considered as the last ukiyo-e master, although there are many bids on that epithet. However, he is one of the last, and one of the great geniuses of late ukiyo-e. He feels unmistakably modern.

Here we see "The Giant Carp" from the 1880s. The red figure is Kintarō.

Kintarō, a fictitious character, is probably based on a real person: Sakata Kintoki, from the Heian period (794-1185 AD). In Japanese folklore, however, he has grown to a superhero, a boy with superhuman strength. According to legend, he was raised by Yamauba (or Yamanba), a mountain hag on Mount Ashigara (or Mount Kintoki). There are several versions of his further story, some of them contradictory.

Still a popular figure in Japanese popular culture, Kintarō had his heydays during the Edo period, frequently appearing in traditional theater (both kabuki and nō) as well as in ukiyo-e.

In this woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, Kintarō is fighting against a great carp.

04 - Adachi Ginkô: Tiger in the Snow

Adachi Ginkô: Tiger in the Snow - 1896

Adachi Ginkô was active 1874-1897, which is after the peak of ukiyo-e. His art belongs to the Meiji period. This is commonly considered as a time of declining ukiyo-e before it disappeared entirely in the beginning of the 20th century. However, it is not justified to dismiss all art from this period as inferior. Several great artists were active during this time and although most of the works from the Meiji period cannot be considered as "classical" ukiyo-e, there are many great works of art among them.

Ukiyo-e was never static, but developed over time. Although its classical period was the Edo era, it continued to evolve far into the Meiji era. This is the nature of art and the way it develops. One style is not entirely replaced by another at an exact point of time. Eventually, gradual artistic and technical changes have reached so far that we give the art another name. But that borderline is never clear or sharp.

For this week I have chosen Ginkô's print Tiger in the Snow.

03 - Kuniyoshi: Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Kodanji IV as the Ghost of Asakura Tôgo

Kuniyoshi: Kabuki Actor Ichikawa Kodanji IV as the Ghost of Asakura Tôgo - 1851

This picture is from a Kabuki play by Segawa Jokô III, Higashiyama sakura sôshi [東山桜荘子], which was performed in the 8th lunar month of 1851 at Nakamuraza, an important theater in Edo.

It is a woodblock print, a yakusha-e, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) and depicts Ichikawa Kodanji IV playing the ghost of the crucified Asakura Tôgo, who seeks revenge on the lord who had him killed for protesting unreasonable taxation. 

Yakusha-e is the sub-genre of ukiyo-e which is dedicated to portraits of kabuki actors and to some extent kabuki scenes.