Ukiyo-e

“ The Ukiyo-ye print, despised by the haughty Japanese aristocracy, became the vehicle of art for the common people of Japan, and the names of the artists who aided in its development are familiarly quoted in every studio, whilst the classic painters of “Tosa” and “Kano” are comparatively rarely mentioned. The consensus of opinion in Japan during the lifetime of Utamaro agrees with the verdict of M. de Goncourt. No artist was more popular. ”

“ If the aphorism “not to go to the theatre is like making one’s toilet without a mirror,” be true, then the Japanese are justified in their national stage passion, which overshadows the love of any other amusement. Taking the phrase literally, it was to the persons [Pg 26] of the actors, and the printers who spread their pictures broadcast, that the people owed the æsthetic wonders of their costume. The designers were also artists, as instanced by Hishigawa Moronobu, the Kyoto designer and Yedo embroiderer, the printer and painter, illustrator of books and originator of Ukiyo-ye. ”

“ The tradition of China showed in all their landscapes, which reflected ethereal vistas classically rendered, of an alien land. Therefore Matahei was contemptuously disowned by Tosa for depicting scenes from the life of his countrymen, yet the technique of Kano and Tosa were the birthright of the artists of Ukiyo-ye, an inalienable inheritance in form, into which they breathed the spirit of life, thus revivifying an art grown cold and academical, and frosted with tradition. ”

“ The Chinese and Buddhist schools of art dated from the sixth century, and in Japan the Emperor Heizei founded an imperial academy in 808. This academy, and the school of Yamato, founded by Motomitsu in the eleventh century, led up to the celebrated school of Tosa, which with Kano, its august and aristocratic rival, held undisputed supremacy for centuries, until challenged by plebeian Ukiyo-ye, the school of the common people of Japan. ”

“ The Chinese classics resemble the pills, while novels and stories correspond to the sweet stuff. Both convey instruction, though in different ways." The edifying character of the Ukiyo-furo is not very obvious to a casual observer, but it is undeniably amusing. Some Japanese critics rank it even before the Hizakurige. If any one cares to know what subjects are discussed by Japanese of the middle and lower classes when they meet, he will find ample means of gratifying his curiosity in this work. ”

“ The Japanese painter knows that the true master selects, does not draw all he sees, but concentrates his efforts towards reproducing the lines of movement, and in figures, the lines of the limbs and flowing drapery. In their designs for dresses the artists of Ukiyo-ye emphasized the theorem that art is the love of certain balanced relations and proportions, for they planned dresses in which every separate part is welded into one harmonious whole. ”

“ To trace the evolution of the Popular School in its development through nearly three centuries is a lengthy study, of deep interest. The mists of uncertainty gather about the lives of many apostles of Ukiyo-ye, from the originator, Iwasa Matahei, to Hiroshige, one of the latest disciples, whose changes of style and diversity of signature have given rise to the supposition that as many as three artists are entitled to the name. ”

“ But though the individuality of each master impressed itself on his style sufficiently, perhaps, to justify this independent classification, both are nothing more than great representatives of the naturalistic sentiment of the era, and both are differentiated from their Ukiyo-ye contemporaries chiefly by the fact that they never devoted their talents to the purposes of the wood-cut or the chromo-xylograph. In force, grace, tenderness and accuracy of line Okio has no superior among Japanese artists. ”

“ The splendour of this beatific vision has never faded, for the masters who followed in the footsteps of the inspired monk reverently preserved the secret of these precious shades, till at last, in the form of the Ukiyo-ye print, they were sown broadcast, and revolutionized the colour sense of the art world.
It has been remarked that Japanese Art of the nineteenth century is often nothing but a reproduction of the works of the ancient great masters, and the methods and mannerisms of the fifteenth century artists have ever served as examples for later students. ”

“ Kano yielded to Chinese influence, Tosa combated it, and strove for a purely national art, Ukiyo-ye bridged the chasm, and became the exponent of both schools, bringing about an expansion in art which could never have been realized by these aristocratic rivals. The vigour and force of the conquering Shoguns led Kano, while the lustre of Tosa was an emanation from the sanctified and veiled Mikado. ”

“ There seems ever to have been a reciprocal action in Japanese Art. Tosa, famed for delicacy of touch, minutiæ of detail and brilliance of colour, yielded to the black and white, vigorous force of Kano. Kano again was modified by the glowing colouring introduced by Kano Masanobu and Motonobu. Later we see the varied palette of Miyagawa Choshun efface the monochromic simplicity of Moronobu, the ringleader of the printers of Ukiyo-ye. ”

“ From the standpoint of Buddhism, Hokusai was the crowning glory, the supreme efflorescence of countless previous incarnations. In his career he epitomized the theory of evolution, the embryonic stages being exemplified by his progress through the schools. Trained in the atelier of Shunsho, the most skillful exponent of Ukiyo-ye art, he rapidly absorbed the methods of his master; but even the Popular School was trammelled by convention, and Hokusai’s genius, rejecting academic fetters, winged its flight through all the realms of oriental art. ”

“ O truly appreciate Japanese prints, a knowledge of the language of the block must first be acquired, then the pursuit has an indescribable charm, inexplicable excepting to the initiated, but to those who have fallen under the spell, the love of Ukiyo-ye gems becomes a veritable passion. The collector of old prints must be guided in his selection by the quality of the paper, which should be soft and vibrant, the fibrous tentacles upon its surface often forming shadows where it has been exposed to the dust. ”

“ There is no escape from the general conclusion that Japanese art derived its motives and its methods from foreign sources, but, on the other hand, both in sculpture and in painting it shows developments which owe nothing to alien suggestion, and must be placed to the sole credit of Japanese genius. That distinction has already been noted with regard to the Ukiyo-ye (genre-picture) , and its truth in the realm of sculpture is established partly by the works of Jōchō and his successors in the religious school, and completely by the carving of netsuke and girdle-pendants in general. ”

“ The ukiyo-ye seems, in short, to have arrived in the regular order of evolution, for the artist passed from a knowledge of low keys and simple colour compositions, developed in the Chinese schools, to a profound sense of the wider scope and fuller harmony of high diversified colours, and thus succeeded in combining the flame and glow of sunshine brilliancy with the tenderness and refinement of twilight tints. ”

“ He subsequently opened a book-shop on his own account. His first work was written in 1794, when he was in his nineteenth year. In 1799 he was reported to the authorities by some person who objected to the immoral tendency of his writings. His parents and relatives, alarmed on his account, urged him to give up authorship, but he refused to do so. He was a prolific writer. Among his numerous publications he is now remembered chiefly by two—the Ukiyo-furo and the Ukiyo-toko. ”

“ What are the special charms which have won for the paintings, wood-cuts and chromo-xylographs of the ukiyo-ye masters such applause in Europe and America? How is it that a branch of pictorial art which Japanese connoisseurs have always regarded with a certain measure of contempt, evokes the unstinted admiration of Occidental critics? Some answer the question by reference to the motives of the pictures. Here, they say, we have accurate representations of the people’s occupations and pastimes; of domestic life with all its graces and conventions ”

“ Sly hits at the vices or follies of the aristocrats are not uncommon. A very large proportion of the subjects deals with the theatre and the denizens of the Yoshiwara. To the Japanese of the upper classes Ukiyoé art was a synonym for the art of the underworld. It is not surprising that they failed to appreciate its merit. To give Ukiyoé paintings or prints an honourable place in one's house was a confession of lack of taste. ”

“ HE above title is quoted from the work of M. Edmond de Goncourt, “as one having authority,” there being many claimants to the leadership of Ukiyo-ye (the floating world) , the Popular School of Japanese Art. In the life of Utamaro, M. de Goncourt, in exquisite language and with analytical skill, has interpreted for us the meaning of that form of Japanese art which found its chief expression in the use of the wooden block for colour-printing, and to glance appreciatively at the work of both artist and author is the motive of this sketch. ”

“ The failure of Japanese connoisseurs to appreciate Ukiyoé art is not, however, entirely or even principally because of its technique. The art of the classical schools is deeply imbued with poetic feeling and usually is dignified in subject. Ukiyoé art, on the contrary, is flippant, whimsical, comic. Except when it deals with portraits, landscapes, or birds and flowers—subjects that are not strictly Ukiyoé—it is seldom that the things depicted are intended to be taken quite seriously. ”

“ He did not succeed, however, in transmitting his inspiration to any of his pupils or immediate successors, and it was not till the close of the seventeenth century, when Hishigawa Moronobu employed the art of wood-engraving to bring the ukiyo-ye within reach of the masses, that the Popular school began to assume a really important place, and to associate itself directly with the production of chromo-xylographs which are now the wonder and the delight of Western collectors. ”

“ The ukiyo-ye artists achieved so much that much may be forgiven to them, but since genre pictures are certainly the proper field for the display of texture painting, the absence of this quality in the work we are considering can not be left unnoticed.
The naturalistic tendency of which the pictures of the Popular School are the most characteristic outcome, found very refined and beautiful expression in the works of Maruyama Okio (born 1733, died 1795) , a Kyoto artist, who must be regarded as one of the greatest painters Japan ever produced. ”

“ The Popular School, aided by Okio, effected a revolution in the laws of painting at Kyoto, for the Torii artists forsook their academic methods, painting birds, flowers, grass, quadrupeds, insects and fishes from nature. Okio’s name ranks high among the great masters of Japanese art, of whom so many fanciful legends are told. ”

“ Indeed there was his great art beautifully achieved when he suddenly entered into idealism or dream where sensuousness and spirituality find themselves to be blood brothers or sisters. In the long history of Japanese art we see the most interesting turn in the appearance of a new personality, that is the Ukiyoye woman; and who was the artist who perfected them to the art of arts? He was Utamaro. You may abuse and criticise, if you will, their unnaturally narrow squint eyes and egg-shaped smooth face ”

“ When I say that Moronobu was the founder of Ukiyoye art, I mean more to call attention to the fact that the Japanese block print was well started in its development from his day, into which process the artists put all sorts of spontaneity, at once cursing creed and tradition. As for the Ukiyoye artists, I dare say their weakness in culture and imagination often turned to force; they gained artistic confidence in their own power from their complete withdrawal from polite society. ”

“ The aristocratic opinion is readily comprehensible. The Ukioye School without doubt lacks that almost{57} religious idealism by which the earlier Japanese schools of painting attained a subtlety perhaps excessively rarefied, an allusiveness almost too remote, a sublimation of intangible spiritual values that very nearly reaches the vanishing-point. No such serene cultivation of feeling is to be found in the Ukioye painters. "Great art is that before which we long to die," says Okakura ”

“ One might well gather from them that the Ukioye artists were the first in all Japanese art to draw subjects selected from real life and to paint with vivid humanism. This is by no means the fact. All the subjects treated by the Ukioye painters had been at some time used by the painters of the older schools; and certainly the usual subject of the Kano or Tosa painter was as real and vivid to him as were any of the themes of the popular artists to these creators. ”

“ This is an excellent combination of the active and passive principles of nature, for the earth nourishes and protects the wood (tree) as long as it lives. This is indeed a good omen and augurs well for your future prosperity and happiness, and I therefore again congratulate you on the felicitous and promising union you have made.”
Usugumo. (Faint Clouds.)
In the Genroku period (1688–1703) Usugumo was one of the most popular of the Yoshiwara courtesans and ranked next to Taka-o in this respect. ”