1864 Kunisada. The sumo wrestler Jinmaku Kyūgorō.. Ōban. Publisher: Wakasaya Yoichi. Asian Art Museum, National Museums in Berlin.
The Buoyant World of
Japanese Prints
U kiyo, the “floating world,” was originally a Buddhist term, referring to the transient nature of human life and experience. The message was therefore not to cling to one’s desires, but instead to accept the flow of life without grasping. In the hedonistic urban culture of Early Modern Japan, however, the concept of a “floating world” was given a new twist. The new spirit proclaimed that if pleasures are only momentary, then let’s enjoy them as much as possible when they appear, much like the cherry blossoms that are all too soon lost to wind or rain.
1780s Shunman Far right panel from the first edition of an untitled hexaptych of women juxtaposed to the "'Six Jewel Rivers’” (mu tamagawa). Ōban. Publisher: Fushimiya Zenroku. Asian Art Museum, National Museums in Berlin. The complete hexaptych is illustrated in Genshoku
There is a fascinating paradox in ukiyo-e; these prints and paintings were created to appeal to the fleeting moment, much like pop songs today, and yet they are now prized as one of the most famous artistic products of traditional Japan. This has been due in large part to painters, collectors, and scholars in the West who were the first to recognize their artistic merits when they were still generally regarded as ephemera in Japan. It has been estimated that at one time as many as 90% of extant Japanese prints had been brought to Europe or North America, and some of the greatest collections now reside in museums in cities such as Boston, New York, and Honolulu. In recent decades, however, the flow has been reversed, with Japanese collectors and museums now buying prints from the West.
The first monograph on a ukiyo-e master in any country was Edmond de Goncourt’s Outamaro: Le Peintre des Maisons Vertes of 1891, and in the 118 years since, there have been more exhibitions, catalogues, and published scholarship on ukiyo-e than any other form of Japanese art. Yet much is left to be done, and this book by Andreas Marks offers not only reliable information on fifty major artists while establishing their historical progression, but also provides a much-needed recognition of the vital role played by publishers. These entrepreneurs not only commissioned artists to design prints or sets of prints and arranged for carvers and printers to complete the works, but they also were in charge of sales. Ukiyo-e was not a form of art created by the lonely painter in a garret, but rather a lively and up-to-the-minute visual medium for people at less than the highest levels of society. Just as we use posters and photographs as decoration and souvenirs, so did everyday Japanese enjoy prints, and without publishers the entire field could not have existed. Further, although they have often been ignored by collectors, the publisher’s markings are part of the artistic whole, just as the red seals of the artist provide visual punctuation to both paintings and prints.
What this extremely thorough and useful book helps to make clear is that ukiyo-e was a collaborative effort, rather different from most print-making in the West, with individual specialists taking the roles of designer, carver, printer, and publisher. They combined to create the supremely high level of the prints that continue to provide us with interest and pleasure today, long after the world in which they were created has floated away.
— Stephen Addiss, University of Richmond
A Unique Art Form
1870 Kunisada II “Hour of the horse” (Uma no koku), from the series “Twelve hours of attempts for hidden images year-round” (Jūni toki hitsushi no toshimaru). Left panel of an Ōban triptych. Publisher: Kiya Sōjirō. Japan Ukiyo-e Museum, Matsumoto.
Hokusai’s “Great Wave,” Hiroshige’s landscapes along the Tōkaidō road, Harunobu’s and Utamaro’s beauties from the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter, and Sharaku’s large-head actor portraits are just a few popular examples of the tens of thousands of woodblock prints that were published in Japan from the mid-seventeenth to the early twentieth century. This unique form of art—mass-produced colored woodblock prints—evolved and thrived only in Japan and there predominantly in Edo, present-day Tokyo. During a long period of peace known as the Edo period (1603–1868), the city of Edo grew to be a culturally and economically thriving metropolis with a dynamic society that enjoyed literature and kabuki theater as well as sexual entertainments, the famous “floating world” (ukiyo). A censorship system, put in place by the government to regulate the liberal but highly commercial daily life, could not suppress the rapid interest in woodblock printed images of actors and courtesans. Today widely known as ukiyo-e or “pictures of the floating world,” these prints developed from early black and white images to subtly hand-colored and then lavishly printed pictures. Often perceived as witnesses of an idealized, romantic past they are now highly treasured. In art sales, a well-preserved print, once sold for a few pennies as one of hundreds of impressions at the time of production, may now cost a fortune—much more than many paintings which are the only one of its kind.
In early modern Japan, this unique art form was an urban phenomenon of a purely commercial nature. Purchased by a large clientele of commoner townsfolk but also by aristocratic samurai, these prints were generally perceived to be a special product of Edo as indicated by the terms azuma-e (“pictures from Edo”) or azuma nishikie (“brocade pictures from the east”), and were popular souvenirs for visitors who came from outside Edo. Shops selling prints and books were established in many different parts of the city. Some offered a broad range of prints, while others specialized in specific items, such as fan prints. In general many of these shops were also active as publishing firms. Today, Japanese print collectors easily overlook the fact that these prints were not considered to be “fine art” during their time of production, nor were they considered to be the creation of a single artist working alone. They were in fact the joint product of a collaboration between several people, with the publisher in the center. The publisher was the decision maker, supervising the entire production process and marketing the final print.
A quintet of five interactive parties was involved in the creation of a print. First, was the artist who designed the image to be printed. Second was the engraver who cut the woodblocks for printing. Third
