44 - Toyokuni I: A picnic party among blossoming plum trees

Toyokuni I: A picnic party among blossoming plum trees

This is A picnic party among blossoming plum trees, a triptych by Toyokuni I (1769-1825).

Blossoming trees are important in Japanese aesthetics. Cherry blossoms, sakura, are most highly venerated, followed by peach and plum tree blossoms - all of them common motives in Japanese art.

43 - Yoshiiku: Hyakumonogatari Ameonna

Yoshiiku: Hyakumonogatari Ameonna

Utagawa Yoshiiku (1833-1904), also known as Ochiai Yoshiiku, was one of Kuniyoshi's many students. He made portraits, bijinga, musha-e and satire. Yoshiiku also created newspaper illustrations and was a co-founder of the newspaper Tokyo E-iri Shinbun (folded in 1889).

In co-operation with Yoshitoshi, Yoshiiku also created the series  Eimei nijūhasshūku - Twenty-eight famous murders, which officially started the subgenre of ukiyo-e that is called muzan-e.

The print this week is Hyakumonogatari Ameonna (a female rain spirit), from 1890.

42 - Gekkō: Monkey and the Moon Reflection

Gekkō: Monkey and the Moon Reflection

Monkey and the Moon Reflection by Ogata Gekkō is a masterpiece in its simplicity. With very subtle means, Gekkō expresses the whole character of a playing monkey. The picture is from about 1895.

41 - Sadanobu II: Bijinga

Sadanobu II: Bijinga

This bijinga is a painting by Hasegawa Sadanobu II (active between 1867 and the 1880s). It is signed “Ho Utamaro Sadanobu”, which means “Sadanobu imitating Utamaro”. That probably refers to the style. The painting is unusual and beautiful.

40 - Hiroshige: Shōno

Hiroshige: Shōno

This print by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) shows Shōno, the 45th station of the Tōkaidō. A scene where passengers are surprised by rain.

Tōkaidō, along which Hiroshige had the opportunity to travel in 1832, was the road connecting the capital of the Shogun, Edo, with the capital of the Emperor, Kyoto.

The stations were post stations, and travellers had to have an official permit in order to cross a station. Travelling freely was not permitted in old Japan. Hiroshige's trip, however, resulted in the famous series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō, 1833-1834, from which Shōno is taken. The series is Hiroshige's best known work and one of the most famous works of ukiyo-e.

See also:
Hiroshige: Kanbara

39 - Yoshitoshi: Adachigahara hitotsuya no zu - The lonely house on Adachi Moor

Yoshitoshi: The lonely house on Adachi Moor
1885

This is Adachigahara hitotsuya no zu - The lonely house on Adachi Moor, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. It illustrates a folk tale, where a woman on Adachi moor, the hag of Adachigahara, preys on children and pregnant women in order to eat them. The picture shows the moment before the hag kills her captive, a pregnant woman.

This is an example of a subgenre of ukiyo-e which is called muzan-e, or "bloody prints", and displays violence, often murder and torture. Yoshitoshi created the genre and it lived on far beyond ukiyo-e, and influences Japanese art and film still today. It also absorbed erotic motives and came to characterise some branches of Japanese pornography.

The lonely house on Adachi Moor was printed in 1885. The first genuine muzan-e, however, was the series Eimei nijūhasshūku - Twenty-eight famous murders - from 1866-1867, which Yoshitoshi and Yoshiiku created together.

38 - Koryusai: Sagi musume - The Heron Maiden

Koryusai: Sagi musume - The Heron Maiden

Here we have one of my personal bijinga favourites, “The Heron Maiden” [Sagi musume], a woodblock print by Isoda Koryusai (1735-1790).

The Heron Maiden is a character in a Japanese folk tale, and often a motive in pictorial art. Briefly, this is the story:

A young man finds a wounded heron, which he takes home and tends until it is healed. When it is, it flies away.

After some time, the man meets a girl, falls in love with her and they get married. They are happy, and to earn a living the wife weaves a precious brocade which the husband sells. But there is one constraint: the man may never watch his wife while she weaves. When he cannot resist to take a look, he sees a heron at work. In front of his eyes, the heron is transformed into his wife. But the spell is broken. When the man has seen her secret, their life together must come to an end and she must leave him. She bids him  goodbye, joins a swarm of herons and disappears.

37 - Kyōsai: Tengu and a Buddhist Monk

Kyōsai: Tengu and a Buddhist Monk

Tengu are folkloristic figures of Japan. A sort of  kami or yōkai. They are something in between humans and birds and are depicted with a beak or long nose. The one we see here (right), is clearly bird-like.

Tengu and a Buddhist Monk, is a painting by Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889).

36 - Kuniyoshi: The Okazaki Cat Demon

Kuniyoshi: The Okazaki Cat Demon, about 1850

Utagawa Kuniyoshi loved cats and made innumerable prints with various cat motives. Here he combines cats with yakusha-e. This is a scene from a Kabuki play by Tsururya Namboku IV, "Okazaki Ghost Cat", from 1827. The print was made about 1850, and is called The Okazaki Cat Demon.

35 - Kaigetsudō Ando: Bijin and Attendant

Kaigetsudō Ando: Bijin and Attendant, 1710

Painter Kaigetsudō Ando (1671-1743) founded the Kaigetsudō school, and some of “his” works might very well have been painted by his disciples. He belongs to the few ukiyo-e artists who never made woodblock prints but restricted his work to paintings.

As many East Asian paintings, Bijin and Attendant is painted on silk. That gives the picture a special lustre.

The musical instrument is a shamisen. It has three strings and its closest western relative is the banjo.

34 - Nobukazu: Snow Landscape

Nobukazu: Snow Landscape, about 1890

Snow Landscape, from the series Snow, Moon and Flower for the Minamoto and Taira by Watanabe Nobukazu (1872?-1944). The print is from about 1890.

33 - Toyokuni I: Actor Iwai Hanshirō V as Sukeroku

Toyokuni I: Actor Iwai Hanshirō V as Sukeroku, 1816

Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825), or Toyokuni I, was a very influential ukiyo-e artist, best known for yakusha-e, kabuki motives. He changed the direction of how yakusha-e developed and set the standard for more than a generation. He even influenced the kabuki theatre itself.

Through Toyokuni and his students, who included Kunisada and Kuniyoshi, the Utagawa school became dominant within ukiyo-e, a dominance previously held by the Torii school.

The picture shows an uchiwa-e, a fan print, Actor Iwai Hanshirō V as Sukeroku, from 1816.

Fans of kabuki used to carry a fan (no pun intended) with a picture of their idol. However, there were fan-shaped prints in other sub-genres of ukiyo-e as well.

32 - Hokkei: En'ryû zu - The salt dragon

Hokkei: En'ryû zu - The salt dragon

This is a surimono by Totoya Hokkei (1780–1850), one of Hokusai's students. The exact year when this print was produced is unknown, but one can assume that it was made for The Year of the Dragon, and that would give us two alternatives, 1820 and 1832.

The print shows a salt dragon. The poem on the left hand side at the top was written by Ganjotei Hakuyo.

Hokkei is a versatile and interesting ukiyo-e artist. Skilled and clearly inspired by his master, Hokusai, yet he remained highly individualistic.

31 - Sûgakudô: Tit and Maple Leaves

Nakayama Sûgakudô: Tit and Maple Leaves

I don't know much about Nakayama Sûgakudô (active 1850–1860), but he made kachô-e, prints of birds and flowers. This is a Manchurian Great Tit, Maple Leaves, and Late Blooming Cherry. It is number 36 in the series Forty-eight Hawks Drawn from Life, [in Japanese: Ikiutsushi shijûhachi taka], from the 6th month of 1859.

Kachô-e was a sub-genre of ukiyo-e from the very beginning. Already then, flowers and birds had been popular motives in East Asian art for centuries.

30 - Chōki: Cat's Cradle

Chōki: Cat's Cradle, about 1804

Eishōsai Chōki (active about 1786-1808) was a student of Toriyama Sekien, who was also the teacher of Utamaro. It is possible that Chōki was the adopted son of Sekien.

The couple on the picture are Okiku and Yosuke. They are supposed to be lovers, but I don't know anything more about them. Here they are playing Cat's Cradle, a game with cords that, in one form or another, exists almost everywhere in the world.

Prints by Chōki are relatively rare and expensive.

29 - Kuniyoshi: Yôkyô (Yang Xiang)

 

Kuniyoshi: Yôkyô (Yang Xiang), 1848

The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety is a book by Chinese scholar Guo Jujing, who wrote under the pseudonym Yizi. In Japan, they call him Kaku Kyokei. He lived during the Yuan dynasty in China (1260–1368).

It describes 24 cases of extreme filial loyalty, a subject that was a part of Confucian moral values.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi made several series of prints of “paragons of filial piety”. In 1848 came Morokoshi nijûshi-kô, [唐土廾四孝] - “The Twenty-four Chinese Paragons of Filial Piety, Part I”, from which this week's print is taken. It is called Yôkyô (in Chinese Yang Xiang). Yôkyô was a boy who jumped in front of his father to protect him from an attacking tiger. The tiger was scared by Yôkyô's unhesitating action and turned away. The print shows Yôkyô, his father, and the approaching tiger.

28 - Moronobu: Beauty Looking Back

Moronobu: Beauty Looking Back

The picture this week is “mikaeri-bijin” [beauty looking back] a painting by Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694), who was the first true ukiyo-e artist. He set the norm for bijinga, a norm to a large extent still defining bijinga as a genre. But his “beauty looking back” is not only artistically interesting, it has also influenced the Japanese language.

見返り美人 – mikaeri-bijin - became a Japanese term for a beautiful woman looking back. But in modern Japanese it has a more special meaning. It is a girl or woman looking beautiful from behind, but, when she turns around, proves to be ugly from the front. The concept contains a degree of disappointment. I don't know of any other language having a special word for this.

There is no reason to believe that the name connoted ugliness or disappointment for Moronobu. That came later.

27 - Yoshikazu: The Angry Ghost of Nitta Yoshioki Takes His Revenge

Yoshikazu: The Angry Ghost of Nitta Yoshioki Takes His Revenge

This is The Angry Ghost of Nitta Yoshioki Takes His Revenge (Nitta Yoshioki no rei okotte ada o mukuu zu), from 1852 - a triptych by Utagawa Yoshikazu, who was active about 1850-1870.

Nitta Yoshioki (1331-1358) was a samurai who, in 1358, was executed by drowning in Tama River. He fought the Ashikaga clan, who held the Shogunate 1336-1573.

There is still a shrine dedicated to Yoshioki as Nitta Daimyōjin, the so-called Nitta Shrine at Yaguchi no Watashi. There is a railway station in Japan, Musashi-Nitta Station, which was named after the Shrine.

26 - Eisen: Summer

Eisen: Summer

This is a kachô-e by Keisai Eisen (1790-1848). It is called "Summer" and is from a series named "The Four Seasons", which Eisen created in 1820.

The print is mainly blue. That makes it an "aizuri-e". The little added orange doesn't change that. The term denotes prints being entirely in blue or where blue is dominating.
 

25 - Toyonobu: Courtesan Standing in Front of a Building

Toyonobu: Courtesan Standing in Front of a Building

I like this bijinga. The geometric background might be a little overbearing, but the figure is graceful with a beautiful posture, and the geometric background provides an interesting contrast to the girl. This is a benizuri-e, a print in pink tones, a technique which was used before the invention of nishiki-e (full colour prints). The creator is Ishikawa Toyonobu (1711-1785), about whom we know very little. The print is named Courtesan Standing in Front of a Building.

24 - Hirosada: Kataoka Gadô II as Matsugae Tetsunosuke and Arashi Rikan III as Saibara Kageyu

Hirosada: Kataoka Gadô II as Matsugae Tetsunosuke and Arashi Rikan III as Saibara Kageyu, 1848

Very little is known about Konishi Hirosada (active ca. 1810-1864 or 1865). However, he was the chief representative of the so-called Osaka school, although he had studied under Utagawa Kunimasu and Utagawa Kunisada in Edo. He used several different names, including Utagawa Hirosada.

As the Osaka school in its entirety, Hirosada devoted himself mainly to kabuki motives, yakusha-e. The Osaka school also distinguished itself by quality of material and extraordinary craftsmanship. Their prints have not aged much. Colours are still almost intact.

Hirosada is sometimes regarded as a genius, and perhaps he was. In any case he was an extraordinarily skilful portraitist, with a style that was expressive without being too garish. A tasteful expressionism. In the kabuki motives he shows a fine sense of drama without exaggerating.

This print is Actors Kataoka Gadô II as Matsugae Tetsunosuke (right) and Arashi Rikan III as Saibara Kageyu (left), in the play Meiboku Sendaihagi, performed at the Chikugo Theatre in Osaka in 1948. The print is a part of the series Tales of Renowned Heroes (Kômei buyû den).

23 - Kuniyoshi: Doll Parodies

Kuniyoshi: Doll Parodies (Ningyô mitate), 1856

This is a mitate-e from 1856 by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861). It is named Doll Parodies (Ningyô mitate), and depicts Shintoism, Confucianism and Buddhism (Shinjubutsu).

We see Hinzuru and Uzume dancing in the foreground, while Confucius and Mencius (sitting) play Go behind them.

Uzume (left) is a Shinto goddess of joy and happiness, Hinzuru (right) is a Buddhist saint. Confucius is the founder of Confucianism, and Mencius is the most famous Confucian philosopher after Confucius himself.

The print depicts “dolls” in the Kannon Temple in Asakusa, yet these were not dolls in a conventional sense. They were life-size statues, clothed and realistic.

1855-1856, Kuniyoshi made a whole series of prints of the dolls displayed in the Kannon Temple, Tôsei mitate ningyô no uchi (當盛見立人形之内), of which “Doll Parodies” is one.

22 - Kyōsai: May (Shōki Riding a Tiger)

Kyōsai: May, (Shōki Riding a Tiger)

This is a triptych by Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889), a skilled artist who considered himself the heir of Hokusai. He made woodblock prints and painted; in addition to that, he was the first political caricaturist in Japan, which caused him three jail sentences.

This triptych from 1887 is part of a series with the twelve months. It represents May, which is also written in English to the right.

Riding on a tiger is Shōki, the Demon Queller. He was a protector against demons and disease. Originally Chinese, as Chung Kwei, he was adopted by the Japanese during the 12th century. Shōki frequently appears as a motive in ukiyo-e.

On Boy's Day, in the 5th month, people used to hang pictures of Shōki, so Kyōsai let him represent May.

21 - Kuniyasu: Parody of Shi Jin, the Nine Dragoned: Akomi of the Ôgiya

Kuniyasu: Parody of Shi Jin, the Nine Dragoned: Akomi of the Ôgiya

Here we have one of those hard-to-interpret mitate-e, with many layers of meaning in contrast with each other. At first sight this is nothing more than a bijinga. Indeed, it is a specified woman, Akomi of the Ôgiya. The print is made by Utagawa Kuniyasu (1794-1832), and it is called Parody of Shi Jin, the Nine Dragoned (Kyûmonryû Shishin no mitate): Akomi of the Ôgiya; from the series One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Popular Shuihuzhuan (Tsûzoku Suikoden gôketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori)."

The Ôgiya was a great brothel in Yoshiwara, Edo's pleasure district. Many ukiyo-e artists created bijinga with portraits of courtesans from this "House". As so many aspects of life in old Japan, a brothel, or a "House", was organised according to a strict hierarchy. The reigning courtesan of the Ôgiya had the hereditary name Hana-o gi.

But who is Shi Jin, the nine-dragoned, with whom Kuniyasu contrasts the courtesan?

He is a character in a Chinese literary classic, Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn (Water Margin). The story is too long to be told here, but Shi Jin had nine dragon tattoos on his body. Compare that to the pattern of the courtesan's kimono.

It is customary to translate "mitate" to "parody", but it can be misleading. I have explained that in a previous article.

20 - Gakutei: Moonlit Night at Suehiro Bridge

Gakutei: Moonlit Night at Suehiro Bridge

Yashima Gakutei (1786–1868) studied under both Hokusai and Totoya Hokkei. He was a poet as well as an artist.

His prints are technically advanced, although he made mainly surimono and book illustrations. His landscapes and seascapes are of a very high quality.

This week's picture is "Moonlit Night at Suehiro Bridge", in the series: Famous Places of Naniwa (Osaka), Views of Tempozan at a Glance (Tempozan Suehiro Bashi - Tsukiyo no Zu) from the 1830s (probably 1834). The style is noticeably influenced by Hokusai.

This was the northern entry into the system of channels covering the land of Tempozan, in Osaka. 

19 - Utamaro: Scops Owl and Bullfinches

Utamaro: Scops Owl and Bullfinches

Momo chidori kyôka awase [One Hundred Birds in a Competition of Humorous Poetry] from about 1790, sometimes considered the epitome of kachô-e, is an album by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806). In my opinion, there are more beautiful examples of kachô-e, but Utamaro's studies of birds are exquisite. 

The album was published by Tsutaya Juzaburo (1748-1797) as one of his anthologies of kyōka, a form of comic verse. His friend Utamaro illustrated several of those anthologies. Momo chidori kyôka awase is the most famous result of their co-operation.

The picture I have chosen from the album is Scops Owl (Mimizuku) and Bullfinches (Uso).

Kachô-e (also called kachô-ga) is a sub-genre of ukiyo-e. Strictly, it is defined as “studies of flowers and birds”, but while many artists limited themselves to flowers and birds, others went beyond that to other plants and animals. In a broader sense we can say that kachô-e is about studies of plants and animals in general.

18 - Kôkan: Girl on a veranda

Kôkan: Girl on a veranda

Shiba Kôkan (1747-1818), or Suzuki Harushige, was a very skilled artist who worked with a large number of styles and techniques. One of his specialities were woodblock prints in Harunobu's style. He even signed some of them with Harunobu's name. Today we would call that forgery.

This print is “Girl on a veranda” by Kôkan - falsely signed “Harunobu”. Note that Kôkan imitated Harunobu's style, but made his own picture.

17 - Nobukazu: Love Of Fireflies

Nobukazu: Love Of Fireflies - 1896

Watanabe Nobukazu (1872?-1944), a student of Yōshū Chikanobu, made pictures ranging from traditional ukiyo-e, such as bijinga, to pictures of Tokyo on the verge of modernisation, or war scenes from the wars with China or Russia. He is one of the very last ukiyo-e artists.

This is a bijinga by Nobukazu: “Love Of Fireflies” from 1896.  It is not a woodblock print but a lithograph.

16 - Kunihiro: Actor Onoe Tamizo as Tenjiku Tokubei Performing Toad Magic

Kunihiro: Actor Onoe Tamizo as Tenjiku Tokubei Performing Toad Magic - 1832

This is "Actor Onoe Tamizo as Tenjiku Tokubei Performing Toad Magic", a woodblock print by Utagawa Kunihiro. It is a yakusha-e from the kabuki play "Otonikiku ikoku no irifune". The print is from 1832.

Utagawa Kunihiro was active 1815-1841/1843, and belonged to the Osaka school.

15 - Gekkō: The Plum Blossoms of Kameido

Gekkō: The Plum Blossoms of Kameido
From the Series Famous Views of Flowers and Beautiful Women
1895

This is a triptych - three prints put together to create one larger picture - "The Plum Blossoms of Kameido" by Ogata Gekkō (1859-1920). The picture is from the series "Famous Views of Flowers and Beautiful Women", 1895.

Ogata Gekkō understood himself as part of the tradition of ukiyo-e, but he was very versatile and also experimented with techniques and styles not normally included in that tradition - for example lithography. He is widely underestimated, but I perceive him as one of the greatest Japanese artists of his generation.

14 - Chikanobu: Tour by boat - Okawa-river

Chikanobu: Tour by boat - Okawa-river

Toyohara Chikanobu (1838–1912), sometimes called Yōshū Chikanobu, had a number of illustrious teachers. First Keisai Eisen, and later Kuniyoshi and Kunisada.

"Tour by boat, Okawa River", a woodblock print from 1897, is sometimes seen with other titles: "Nobleman Boatings" or "Tokugawa Shogun at Okawasuji". This triptych is taken from the series Official Ceremonies at Chiyoda Palace.

The print is from the Meiji period and belongs to the informational prints which were so typical for that period. Many depictions of war or officialdom served as newspaper illustrations and were made for educational rather than artistic purposes. Photography gradually came to replace them.

13 - Sharaku: Actor Nakayama Tomisaburô, also called Ômiya Kinsha, as Ohisa

Sharaku: Actor Nakayama Tomisaburô, also called Ômiya Kinsha, as Ohide

This is a masterwork by one of the most eccentric artists of ukiyo-e, Tōshūsai Sharaku. Nobody knows who he was, and his career spanned only 10 months in 1794 and 1795. During that short period of time he presented about 150 prints in a unique style, almost exclusively yakusha-e, portraits of kabuki actors. His works are almost ugly, but the strength and powerful expression, and the characterisation of actor and role, reveals true genius.

"Actor Nakayama Tomisaburô, also called Ômiya Kinsha, as Ohisa", is a print from 1794. This is a man playing a woman, which is clearly visible from the facial features. The face is male. Women were forbidden to play in kabuki so all female roles were played by male actors. Such an actor, playing women, was called an Onnagata.

12 - Hiroshige II: Iwatake gathering at Kumano in Kishu

Hiroshige II: Iwatake gathering at Kumano in Kishu - approx. 1860

Iwatake is a delicacy in Japan. Its name in Latin is Umbilicaria esculenta. In East Asia it is used as food, and in Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM, as a medicine. Called iwatake in Japan, it is called shi'er in China, and seogi in Korea. Iwatake means "rock mushroom".

To harvest it, collectors are lowered down a cliff, preferably in wet weather. This is very dangerous. There is a saying in Japan: "Never give lodging to an iwatake collector, he doesn't always survive to pay the rent." Otherwise the iwatake has a reputation of providing longevity.

This woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige II (1826-1868), a student of the great Hiroshige, shows iwatake collectors in action. Its title is "Kishū kumano iwatake tori (Iwatake gathering at Kumano in Kishu)", and it dates around 1860.

11 - Keisei: Benzaiten Seated on a White Dragon

Keisei: Benzaiten Seated on a White Dragon - 1832-1833

Aoigaoka Keisei was active during the 1820s and 1830s. He was Hokkei's student, possibly also Hokusai's, and his prints, mainly surimono and book illustrations, are of a very high technical standard.

This print is named "Benzaiten sitting on a White Dragon". It is also called "The Goddess Benzaiten Appears to Hôjô Tokimasa at Enoshima". But that title is misleading, unless one sees the whole vertical diptych, of which this is the top print. The bottom print is missing here.

Benzaiten is a Japanese Buddhist goddess of everything that flows: water, words, music, time, and knowledge - and she is one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune. She is also considered a Shinto kami and a protector deity of Japan, and she is associated with dragons. Her origin can be traced back to the Hindu goddess Saraswati.

The musical instrument she holds is a biwa, a traditional Japanese lute.

10 - Utamaro: Three Beauties of the Present Day

Utamaro: Three Beauties of the Present Day - 1793

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) is one of the most influential ukiyo-e artists, and one of the few who became famous beyond Japan. He is best known for his bijinga, pictures of beautiful girls, one of the major sub-genres of ukiyo-e. 

Utamaro introduced a certain realism of the faces, which had so far been idealised and stereotyped. This print, "Three Beauties of the Present Day" [Tōji San Bijin], from 1793, shows a triangular composition of three girls in the style of okubi-e (large head). Okubi-e had so far been yakusha-e, portraits of kabuki actors, but Utamaro applied it in bijinga.

The heads seem alike, but on a closer look, there are subtle differences which make them individual. In fact, the girls are the geisha Tomimoto Toyohina (top), and the two waitresses Takashima Hisa (left) and Naniwa Kita (right), who figure on many prints by Utamaro and others.

It has sometimes been claimed that this picture was the first (or one of the first) bijinga with girls who were not courtesans. That is not true - it was already started by Harunobu, who sometimes made bijinga with beauties from everyday life.

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.

02 - Koryusai: Dragon

Isoda Koryusai: Dragon

Isoda Koryusai (1735-1790) was the artistic heir of Harunobu, although it is not known if he was ever Harunobus student. In my opinion, Koryusai is an underestimated artist. Harunobu, before him, and Kiyonaga, after him, tend to get most of the attention.

The Dragon above is not typical for Koryusai's art. Indeed, originally it is not his picture, but a copy he made of a painting by Ganki (a 14th century Zen painter), The text at the top states "Painted by Ganki". It is also signed "Hokyo Koryusai sha", which means "copied by Koryusai".

I have not seen Ganki's original painting, but I am fascinated by Koryusai's copy. This dragon, a creature of magic and legend, might very well be the one compelled by the Chinese Sennin Chennan (or Chinnan) to rise from the mud and open "the cataracts of heaven" over the village of Sogo, where people were praying for rain.

Koryusai is considered as the second master of nihiski-e, brocade prints, or full-colour prints, but the (almost) monochrome nature of this picture definitely adds to its fascination. Yet there is limited colour manually added on fangs and claws, although that is barely discernible.

01 - Harunobu: A girl on a veranda

Harunobu: Girl on a veranda

Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770) was the first woodblock artist who made full-colour prints, so-called nishiki-e. That, in combination with other innovations in technique, format, material, and style, makes him one of the most important masters of ukiyo-e.

This woodblock print shows a bijin, a beautiful girl. It is the typically petite girl of Harunobu's art: a slender, elegant figure - almost a child. While many other ukiyo-e-artists paid an immense attention to the kimono and its pattern, these aspects play a relatively small role in Haronubu's bijinga. On the other hand, he was the first artist to make real backgrounds, an environment for his figures.