EXQUISITE NEW WORLDS
Week 3 Class Notes, 28 October 2019
JAPANESE WOODBLOCK PRINTING TECHNIQUE (continued from last week)
The best way to learn about how Japanese prints are made is to see it being done and there are many good videos on line showing the technique of making woodblock prints. It was not possible to view these in our classroom due to a very poor wifi signal, but I would like to recommend some for you:
Excellent and short, these two videos by contemporary British woodblock artist Rebecca Salter are both 4:23 minutes long (one follows directly after the other). She has her prints produced in Japan and is extremely knowledgeable about Japanese technique. The first is an introduction and a description of carving. The second talks about the printing process.
Also short and comprehensive is a video, “Woodblock Printmaking”, by Canadian print artist Graham A. Scholes. This begins with a very quick review of the history of hanga (print) styles (the dates given are questionable). Following this Scholes takes us through the production of one of his prints. He talks about carving and then goes into some detail about the method used in Japan to make paper for prints. Following this he describes the baren and shows its construction and demonstrates his printing technique. It runs 11:07.
Also recommended are two real time (longish) videos of a Japanese woodblock printer at work.
In this he reproduces a Hiroshige design from the Kisokaido series. He doesn’t speak at first, but keep watching. He’ll talk about the importance of water, rice paste, and he demonstrates bokashi. You’ll notice that before each use of the baren he rubs it on his face and never explains why. It’s to get some of the oils from his skin on the surface of the baren.
In this video the same printer reproduces a print by Kiyomine. He demonstrates circular bokashi (or diffused gradation), embossing and adding a mica background.
If you google Japanese woodblock printing you’ll find many videos by David Bull. He grew up in Canada, but now lives and works in Tokyo where he has a woodbock print shop. His videos offer many interesting bits of info and insight into Japanese prints and their production, but they are also long on self-promotion. They are worth a look if you have the time and interest, but I recommend watching the others first.
Recommended reading if you wish to do further research:
Japanese Woodblock Printing by Rebecca Salter
University of Hawai’I Press, Honolulu, 2001, ISBN 0-824-2553-5
Color Woodblock Printmaking: The Traditional Method of Ukiyo-e by Margaret Miller Kanada
Shufunotomo Co, Ltd, Japan, 1989, ISBN 4-07-975316-0
JAPANESE PAPER
Japanese paper is called washi. It is made from plant fibers and different kinds of fibers produce different kinds of washi.
Most ukiyo-e is printed on washi made from fibers of the paper mulberry, or kozo (Broussonetia kajinoki). In the Edo Period farmers made paper during the winter months. In some mountainous areas unsuitable for cultivation it was the sole industry. Today there are still some people (or families) making traditional washi, but fewer and fewer people are taking up this quite labour-intensive occupation. Many artists prefer to use this paper, though not all artists can now find a supplier.
To make washi from kozo the bark must first be removed. Only the inner fibers are used.
Fibers are pounded into a paste and a little starch is added. The pounded fibers along with neri are placed in water. Neri is made from the root of the tororoaoi plant. It thickens the water and keeps the fibers suspended.
The paper-maker rocks a bamboo-slat screen in the mixture. The screen is rocked until the fibers are deposited evenly over its surface. The bamboo-slat screen is removed from the mixture and laid on a flat surface, with the kozo fibers on the underside. Then the bamboo-slat screen is peeled off and the kozo paper is left to dry. The marks from the screen remain visible on the paper.
The type of kozo generally used for prints is called masa. Another kozo called hosho is thicker and whiter and is a higher grade of paper than masa. It was used for more deluxe ukiyo-e and surimono. The types of thin washi generally used for the original drawings or proofs were mino or gampi.
The video mentioned above by Canadian print artist Graham A. Scholes shows the process of making Japanese washi.
EARLY UKIYO-E: Prints from the late 17th century to 1764
The tremendous growth of cities during the 17th century resulted in the growth of a prosperous urban middle class known as the chonin. Many of the chonin were literate and had time for leisure pursuits. This led to the development of a rich urban culture based on the arts and the pursuit of pleasure that came to be known as ukiyo, or the floating world. There was a demand for books on a wide variety of subjects. Fiction about the lives of chonin, often set in the brothel districts or theatres, became popular and these books were called ukiyo-zoshi. “Ukiyo” means floating world and was originally a Buddhist term referring to the transitory nature of life. It emphasized life’s hardships and sorrows with the idea that one should concentrate on spiritual pursuits which would bring rewards in the afterlife. When applied to the popular novels it was being used in an ironic way to refer to a life lived pursuing transitory pleasures; living for the moment without a thought for the future, let alone the afterlife.
Chonin were buying art and artists soon began producing works illustrating chonin life and the “floating world”. At first these were paintings, usually of beautiful women or the pleasure districts. At some time around the 1660s book publishers began producing ehon (picture books) and then individual woodblock art prints. These were usually a larger and better quality image (on better quality paper) than book illustrations. The earliest woodblock prints were of the pleasure districts and were usually erotic.
The earliest artist to be given credit for his book illustrations and for his woodblock print designs was Hishikawa Moronobu (c.1618-94). Moronobu was a talented artist and his style influenced subsequent woodblock print artists. This style, widely used for ukiyo (floating world) subjects, was later called ukiyo-e, meaning pictures of the floating world. It is a little confusing as the term refers to the subject matter, though in time “ukiyo-e” was used to refer to the style. In fact, many people consider “ukiyo-e” to be synonymous with old Japanese woodblock prints, even though ukiyo-e artists produced paintings as well as prints. This is because there were so many more prints than paintings, and it was the prints that western people first became familiar with.
Moronobu was the son of a dyer of brocade fabric and in his paintings the kimono patterns are as important as the depictions of the young women.
Beauty by Hishikawa Moronobu (c.1618-1694)
63.0x31.2 cm, c.1690
The MET, New York
Moronobu likely studied with both Kano and Tosa painters and with an unknown master of book illustration, consolidating all into the style that became ukiyo-e. He is considered to be the founder of ukiyo-e as he is the first whose name is known, though he was not the first to illustrate the floating world in this sort of style. He illustrated books on many different subjects.
Birds and Flowers by Hishikawa Moronobu (c.1618-1694)
26x17.8 cm, published 1683
The MET, New York
The first woodblock prints came in a variety of sizes; some very large. They were printed from one block with black ink called sumi. Sumi ink was made from soot from burning charcoal or oil, to which was added glue and aromatic compound. This was formed into bars. Sumi to be used for prints was dissolved in water and strained through a fine cloth. This last step was not necessary for normal use (brushwork), but printing required a purer ink.
Lovers by Hishikawa Moronobu (c.1618-1694)
23.5x33.7 cm, c.1680s
The MET, New York
Kabuki – the type of kabuki that we know today – began in the 1660s. Plays were advertised with posters on boards outside the theaters. In 1687 a kabuki actor and signboard painter named Torii Kiyomoto moved from Osaka to Edo with his son Torii Kiyonobu (1664-1729). By this time the popular actors had becoming stars and Kiyonobu, who studied with Moronobu, began designing images for woodblock prints of the most famous actors. His work was popular and he founded the Torii school, specializing in actor portraits and kabuki posters.
A So-Dori Performance attributed to Torii Kiyonobu I (1664-1729)
28.5 x 45.5 cm, c. 1704-15
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The earliest actor print that can be reliably dated is this very large print of Ichikawa Danjuro I in the role of Soga no Goro by Torii Kiyomasu (active 1696-1716). Kiyomasu is thought to have been a younger brother or son of Kiyonobu.
Ichikawa Danjuro I as Soga no Goro
by Torii Kiyomasu I (active 1696-1716)
54.7x32 cm, 1697
Tokyo National Museum
Early prints might be left as printed, or they might have colour added by hand. The first colours used were tan, an orange, made from lead, sulphur and saltpeter which tended to darken over time, and suo, a reddish yellow made from sappanwood. These early coloured prints are called tan-e.
Torii artists continued to design woodblock prints and to paint kabuki signboards throughout the 1700s. Interestingly, the most famous Torii artist was Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815), who was better known for his prints of beautiful women than his actor prints. Kiyonaga was the last major Torii artist to design ukiyo-e prints, but Torii artists still paint posters for the kabuki theater today.
Posters by Torii School artists outside the Kabukiza (Kabuki Theater)
Tokyo, 2019
Early Torii artists did not limit themselves to kabuki subjects either and also produced prints of beautiful courtesans.
The most famous early artists to depict the ideal of feminine beauty were Kaigetsudo Ando, who was influenced by the Torii style, and his pupils. The kimono patterns were important features of his paintings just as Moronobo’s had been. The fashions shown in prints were also important aspects of the designs, especially as the colours became more sophisticated.
Courtesan and girl attendant by Kaigetsudo Ando (1671-1743)
93.9x50.9 cm, c.1714
Tokyo National Museum
As the market for prints grew new colours and special effects were added. Nikawa (animal collagen glue) was used on the paper and metal filings (such as brass to imitate gold) were sprinkled on to achieve a rich, sparkling effect. Later ground mica would be used as well.
Sanjo Kantaro as a nurse
Attributed to Okumura Toshinobu w.c. 1716-64)
1729
Nikawa was also added to the sumi ink to get a glossy black that resembled lacquer. These are called urushi-e (lacquer prints).
Shoki (the demon queller, who wards off illness)
Miyagawa Yasunobu (worked c. 1716-41)
c. 1730s
Torii and other artists also designed landscapes, usually in the same vertical format, called hosoban, used for actor prints. These ukiyo-e style landscapes incorporated two basic principles: the viewpoint was from above with closer objects at the bottom, and the relative size of objects depicted varied according to their importance in the design and not according to their relative distance from the viewer.
Descending Geese at Katada, No. 3 from Eight Views of Omi
By Torii Kiyomasu II (1706-1763), c.1730s
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Sometimes a landscape (horizontal) format was used for ukiyo-e landscapes.
Night Rain on Emon Hill, No. 1 from a series of Eight Views of Edo
By Nishimura Shigenaga (1697?-1756), c. 1730s
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In the early 1740s the market for prints was such that it became impractical to colour each by hand and the system for adding colour blocks using kento for registration (described last week) was developed. The first colours used were: beni, a rose colour from safflower, and green. These prints are called benizuri-e.
Man with young woman and young man
By Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764)
10.8x17.5 cm, c. 1749
The MET, New York
One of the most important artists of the early 1700s was Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764). Masanobu was a great artist and innovator. He was a painter and print designer. He was a master of the print album, but he worked in every format. He is credited with many firsts, including the first mitate prints. Mitate is a parody, or an allusion, often a literary allusion. People demonstrated their cleverness if they got the joke or the reference. Many ukiyo-e artists incorporated mitate in their designs, though mitate is often difficult to recognize now as much of the cultural context has been lost. Masanobu is also thought to have been the first to design: triptychs, bust portraits, pillar prints, nature prints and perspective prints.
Pillar print showing a geisha or street musician seated upon a Shogi in front of a Tea House
By Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764)
73x13.3 cm, c. 1763
The MET, New York
Perspective prints, or uki-e, were landscape or interior scenes that incorporated an exaggerated linear perspective. These were often quite large, presumably because they incorporated a lot of detail. They seemed to have enjoyed a period of popularity in the 1740s and then they mostly disappear for a generation. It is possible that this was just a dramatic pictorial effect devised by the Masanobu, though it seems more likely that uki-e were inspired by western art, which had been unavailable to Japanese artists for a great many years due to the policy of sakoku (closed country).
Diving Woman Retrieving the Jewel from the Dragon Palace
By Masanobu (1686-1764)
29.4 x 43.7 cm, c.1740s
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Portuguese traders had arrived in Japan in 1543 and Spanish in 1584. In 1609, during the Edo period, the Tokugawas established trade relations with the Dutch. The Portuguese and Spanish brought Christian missionaries who made many converts in some parts of Japan. Christians were viewed as a threat by the Tokugawa government because their supreme authority was the Christian god and god’s earthly representative, the pope. This undermined the authority of the emperor and the shogun. Also, although neither the Portuguese nor the Spanish interfered in Japanese politics, the threat was always there.
The Spanish were expelled in 1624 and the Portuguese in 1638. Christianity was made illegal. Missionaries were expelled or executed if they failed to leave. Converts were forced to recant or they were executed. The sakoku (closed country) policy was implemented. Foreigners were restricted to the port of Nagasaki. Only the Dutch (who did not bring missionaries) and the Chinese were allowed and each group was restricted to their own island in Nagasaki Bay where they were allowed a small settlement. These were not colonies as only men were permitted to reside there. There was also some limited trade with Korea during the Edo Period, but this was through Tsushima (on a small island, not one of the main Japanese islands), which was closest to Korea, and via trade missions and trading posts at Pusan and Choryang.
Japanese who went abroad faced execution if they returned.
For many years the Tokugawa government forbade the dissemination of Dutch books, with the exception of nautical and medical texts, but by the 1720s this policy was eased. It is reasonable to assume that by about 1740 Dutch publications with illustrations were being seen by Edo artists and that these might have inspired the interest in uki-e prints.
Large Perspective View
of the Interior of Echigoya in Suruga-chô
By Masanobu (1686-1764)
47.7 x 66.9 cm, c.1745
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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Interior of the Nieuwe Kerk
Amsterdam
By Emanuel de Witte
c.1617-92
The ROM
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After the 1740s artists returned to the more typical smaller vertical format for landscape prints, though they now incorporated a slightly more western style of perspective.
Autumn Moon at Ishiyama Temple
By Harunobu (1725-70), c. early 1760s
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
By the 1750s it was common for three or more colour blocks to be used for ukiyo-e prints.
Woman coming from bath
By Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764)
30.8x14cm, c. 1755
The MET, New York
FULL COLOUR PRINTING: Ukiyo-e from 1765
The first full-colour print is considered to be a calendar print for the year 1765 designed by the artist Harunobu. Full colour means a print made with six or more colour blocks. Connoisseurs loved them and publishers soon printed more. These were called nishiki-e, meaning brocade pictures, because they were so bright and colourful that they reminded people of colourful fabric. Nishiki-e quickly became the standard and this increased the popularity of ukiyo-e prints.
The First Day of Spring (Risshun)
From the series “Fashionable Poetic Immortals of the Four Seasons”
By Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770)
27.9 x 21 cm., c. 1768
The MET, New York
Some of the colours used for prints were mineral-based, but many were made from vegetable material and were light sensitive. The early blue used in prints, made from the dayflower (tsuyugusa), was particularly fugitive, but all of the vegetable colours fade with exposure to light.
New printing techniques such as bokashi (shading) and blind printing (embossing) appeared soon after this.
A new school of artists emerged soon after the introduction of full-colour prints. Katsukawa Shunsho (1726-1793) studied with the painter Katsukawa Shunsui. In the 1660s he began designing woodblock prints and founded his own Katsukawa school, specializing in actor portraits.
Osagawa Tsuneyo II in the Role of Oishi
and Ichikawa Danjuro V in the Role of Honzo
By Katsukawa Shunsho (1726-1793)
c. 1780
The MET, New York
Shunsho attracted a number of pupils who proved very talented and he and his pupils took over from the Torii school as the most influential actor portrait artists.
Ichikawa Danjuro V as Arajishi Otokonosuke
and Iwai Hanshiro IV as Takao’s Younger Sister Kasane
By Katsukawa Shunko (1743-1812), 1778
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
They introduced more individual features for their actors, at least for those in male roles, and they dominated the market for actor prints in the later 1700s. They did not, of course, confine themselves to that subject. Shunsho in particular produced designs of pretty women and other subjects.
Keyblock proof for a fan print
By Shunsho (1726-1793)
This was the time during which the young Hokusai would have been discovering the world of art.
Hokusai was born October 31, 1760, the year of the dragon. His childhood name was Tokitaro. He was born into the artisan class, but we do not know who his parents were.
Hokusai claimed to have developed an interest in sketching at age 6, just when full colour prints were beginning production. Around the age of 12 his name changed to Tetsuzo and he began work as a delivery boy for a kashihon’ya (library). Around age 14 he became an apprentice to a woodblock carver. His first known work was carving the text for a share-bon (light novel) in 1775.
In 1778 Shunsho accepted Hokusai as an apprenticeship with the Katsukawa school. Hokusai must have shown real promise as an artist for Shunsho to have done so. Within a year Hokusai had actor prints published under the name Katsukawa Shunro. The tradition at the time was for artists to work under an art name that was given to them by their teacher. It would incorporate one syllable from the teacher’s name with another syllable that would make it a unique name.
Ichikawa Ebizo (Danjuro V) as Mongaku Shonin disguised as Yamagatsu
Play: Kin no Menuki Minamotoya Katutsuba
By Katsukawa Shunro (1760-1849), 1791
The MET, New York
Hokusai worked as an apprentice or member of the Katsukawa School from 1778 until 1794. During that period he published over 200 prints and illustrated at least 60 books. His print subjects were mostly kabuki, but included sumo, women, legends, children, animals, shunga, and comic subjects. He also published his first surimono during this period.
Sumo wrestlers Takaneyama Yoichiemon and Sendagawa Kichigoro
By Katsukawa Shunro (1760-1849), c. 1790-93
The MET, New York
About the same time that full-colour prints were sparking new interest in ukiyo-e, many Japanese were becoming interested in the study of Rangaku (Dutch learning). This involved study of all types of western knowledge (especially medicine) and included art. Some Japanese artists even traveled to Nagasaki in hopes of studying with a western artist. By the 1780s students of European painting and etching had their own schools.
Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814) studied painting in Kyoto. In the mid 1760s he moved to Edo and studied there with a member of the Kano School and likely also with an ukiyo-e artist. In the late 60s – early 70s he designed actor and beauty prints in a style similar to that of Harunobu. Around this time he also began producing uki-e (perspective) prints. In some cases he has directly copied foreign prints (probably copper etchings) quite faithfully.
Perspective Picture: A Port in the South-East of Holland
By Toyoharu (1735–1814)
25.6 x 38.8 cm, c.1770
The British Museum
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Church of Saint Cecilia, Cologne
By Gerrit Berckheyde (1638-1698)
c.1670-80
The ROM
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Other of his works show Japanese scenes in a style reminiscent of western style. He used western perspective more accurately than did the uki-e artists of the 1740s.
Other artists tried out the new style too, including Hokusai during his Katsukawa days.
The Precincts of the Kinryuzan Temple of Kannon at Asakusa
By Katsukawa Shunro (1760-1849), 1780
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
During the years that Hokusai was a member of the Katsukawa School he married and had two daughters and a son. In 1793 his artistic mentor, Shunsho, died. Then in 1794 his wife died.
In 1794 Hokusai left the Katsukawa School and ceased using the name Katsukawa Shunro. According to one source he was expelled from the school for secretly studying with the Kano School, the old, prestigious painting school that was patronized by the military elite. According to Hokusai he left because he was criticized by Shunko. Later he recalled that "What really motivated the development of my artistic style was the embarrassment I suffered at Shunko’s hands.“
It is said that for a time he was forced to work as a pedlar of condiments and calendars, but by the end of 1794 Hokusai had assumed the art name Tawaraya Sorii. The Tawaraya family was the leading Edo Rinpa school (described week 2).
Woman Spinning Silk
By Hokusai Sori (1760-1849)
c. 1798-99
The MET, New York
In 1795 Hokusai remarried. He would have more daughters (either 1, 2 or 3) and another son.
Hokusai’s Tawaraya connections introduced him to a circle of kyoka enthusiasts and during his Sori period he designed many illustrations for books of kyoka (comic poetry) as well as many surimono. Surimono were privately commissioned prints, usually on better paper than regular ukiyo-e and often incorporating deluxe printing techniques. Kyoka had become extremely popular and many poets and poetry clubs had surimono printed with their poems on them.
Kyoka Sandara-kasami Mountain Teahouse
From The Mist of Sandara
(a poetry album featuring the poet Sandara)
By Hokusai Sori (1760-1849), 1798
The MET, New York
In 1798 he became independent from the Rinpa school, saying he would never again belong to any school.
