In this period there was also a remarkable development in the pictures of signboards of theaters. The pioneer in this field of Ukiyo-e painting was Torii Kiyonobu, who became the founder of the Torii School. He flourished in the Genroku Era (1688-1703). Most of his works that remain today are tan-e or urushi-e.
In the early eighteenth century, there developed a school called Kwaigetsudō the artists of which usually painted by hand the professional beauties of Yoshiwara. The founder of this school was called Kwaigetsudō Andō and his followers prefixed Kwaigetsudō Matsuryū above their names, which means the followers of the Kwaigetsudū School. They usually painted a woman alone, but sometimes added a smaller woman beside a large one. (Fig. 148) They seldom produced works in print.
Miyakawa Chōshun, 1682-1752, another famous painter, did not produce prints, but excelled in beautiful color painting. His followers also, except for Katsukawa Shunshō, did not produce color prints.
In Kyoto there appeared an able Ukiyo-e painter called Nishikawa Sukenobu who flourished in the first half of the eighteenth century. He excelled both in color painting and prints. But his prints were used only in picture books.
Fig. 148. Lady, by Kwaigetsudō Andō
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
In the third period (1741-1843), a remarkable development was made in what is called crimson prints, or beni-e; and then further development was achieved in what is called nishiki-e; or brocade-picture.
But before describing these two kinds of color prints and their artists we shall pause here to see the unique processes by which Japanese color prints are made, so that our readers may understand why they deserve so much fame throughout the world.
First of all, it must be understood that the color print is not a reproduction of a picture in colors. It is entirely different from a colored reproduction. Any reproduction of a famous painting is necessarily inferior to the original; and no one will take it for the original. But in the Ukiyo-e print, the case is entirely different. There is no independent colored picture to be reproduced by printing. The Japanese color print is produced by the co-operation of three different artists; that is, the painters, the engraver, and the printer. The painter first draws a picture in black and white, this being known as the shita-e or “found picture.” Then the engraver transfers this foundation picture to the block. What colors are to be applied to what portions of the picture are noted by the painter in letters. Then the printer actually applies the colors to the blocks, so as to get the desired effects.
The lines in color prints are very different from those drawn by painters with brushes. The lines traced on the blocks express the skill of the engraver, and assume quite a different beauty from that of brush painting. The painter of the original lines must consider what kinds of lines will get the best effect when they are transferred to the block by his engraver. Therefore, the characteristics of the lines of the color prints depend mostly upon the engraver. But the final finish is achieved by the printer. The printers transfer the lines to the paper by pressing them with a kind of pad called baren. The pressing of the colors gives them a certain fine luster which can never be obtained by hand coloring.
It will now be clearly understood that in making up a color print three artists—the painter, the engraver, and the printer—must co-operate closely from the beginning to the end. When the three co-operate well, the best kind of Ukiyo-e print will be produced; and it deserves higher appreciation than does the painting. This is the reason why Japanese color prints are so highly prized.
As has been said, in the period from Enkyō (1744-1747) to Hōreki (1751-1763) the first step of progress was made in what is called beni-e color print. Beni-e literally means crimson picture. The principal color of the beni-e print is a soft vegetable pink. The pink is generally used in contrast with green, yellow, and some other colors. But the colors are not graded so as to get beautiful tints and shades as they are in the brocade picture which developed later.
The size of beni-e was generally small, measuring one foot in height and half a foot in breath. Okumura Masanobu and Ishikawa Toyonobu were outstanding painters who produced a number of fine beni-e prints.
Okumura Masanobu, 1690-1768, is said to have been the pupil of Torii Kiyonobu. He studied the Hishikawa style and founded his own style. He was a painter and publisher of color prints.
Ishikawa Toyonobu, 1711-1785, studied Ukiyo-e in the studio of Nishimura Shigenaga. He was fond of painting men and women of a quiet type. He made many efforts for the advancement of color prints and left excellent pictures printed in two or three colors.
After beni-e, a much finer color print, called nishjiki-e or “brocade picture” developed. As the name brocade picture denotes, a number of different complimentary hues and tints were used skillfully so as to give a complicated, yet very harmonious color scheme as a whole.
The most meritorious pioneer in the development of brocade picture prints was Suzuki Harunobu. His style was studied further by Isoda Koryusai and Ippitsusai Buncho. On the other hand, Kitano Shigemasa and Utagawa Toyoharu were all able masters and established their own styles. They flourished during the Meiwa and An-ei eras (1764-1780).
The following Tem-mei and Kwansei eras (1781-1800) are known as the golden age of the brocade print. In this golden age appeared such able masters as Katsukawa Shunshō, Toshusai Sharaku, Torii Kiyonaga, Kubo Shumman, Kitakawa Utamaro, and Hosoda Eishi. The favorite subjects painted by these masters were usually beauties or actors.
The most outstanding and representative master painters among them were Harunobu, Shunshō Kiyonaga, and Utamaro.
Suzuki Harunobu, 1718-1770, usually painted beautiful women of tea-houses and daughters of merchants; but rarely actors of Kabuki theaters. He did not try to paint real faces of individuals. He acquired great fame for his special type of beauty. Even between his different figures there was almost no distinction. And even when he painted two young lovers, the young man and woman had nearly the same type of face. His figures are highly idealistic and look like fairies who have just come out of the land of dreams. He tried to express their mental attitudes. He excelled in the depiction of dresses. His design, his colors, and delicate line movements are all intended to represent the inner hearts of the figures. (Color plt. 9) Harunobu generally tried to give architectural as well as landscape background, and in this he was quite successful.
In contrast with beauties painted by Harunobu, the beauties by Kiyonaga, 1753-1815, are more realistic. Kiyonaga’s lines are more powerful than those by Harunobu. His clothes envelop real women, not dreamy nor emphemeral ones like Harunobus. While Harunobu is much more spiritual and more or less celestial, Kiyonaga’s beauties are much more terrestial and sensuous in form and colors.
Another famous master was Katsukawa Shunshō (1726-1792). He painted famous beauties and portraits of actors. Of his pupils, Shunkō and Shun-ei were prominent.
Kitagawa Utamaro, 1754-1806, first studied the Kanō style and then entered the studio of Toriyama Sekien, devoted much attention to the style of Torii Kiyonaga, and became a master painter of his day. He specialized in painting the busts of beauties. He was usually so engrossed in painting the beauties themselves that he did not pay much attention to the background. (Fig. 149)
Fig. 149. Ladies on the Ryōgoku Bridge, by Utamaro
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
From the Bunkwa and Bunsei eras (1804-1829) the art of engraving progressed even more, but the pictures drawn for making prints rather declined. However, the subjects painted by the Ukiyo-e painters extended to much broader fields. Landscapes, flowers, and birds, the contemporary customs and manners became favorite subjects. Noted painters who flourished in this period were Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Toyokuni, Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and Andō Hiroshige.
Katsushika Hokusai, 1760-1849, studied first at the atelier of Katsukawa Shunshō. Then he studied the styles of the Kanō and Tosa schools. Moreover, he paid attention to the Chinese painting of the M
ing Dynasty. By Shiba Kōkan, he was initiated into the painting of the West. He was attracted by many other styles also and often changed his style. Whenever he changed his style he used a new pen name. The fact that he changed it more than twenty times shows how hard he worked. His painting was distinguished by free and bold strokes and fertile designs. The subjects he painted were full of variety, human affairs of daily life, historical events, natural scenery, flowers, and birds. He had very astonishing ability in seizing the essential points of things, which he exaggerated, as will be seen in his picture of Mount Fuji, the crest of which seems to be pulled high up to heaven. (Fig. 150) His genius was expressed most remarkably in this field. His prints representing thirty-six different views of Mount Fuji are the best examples of his ability in landscape painting. He once painted Japanese customs and manners for a Dutch captain in two scrolls, and obtained much admiration. After this, his pictures were so highly esteemed in Holland that hundreds of them were sent there every year.
Andō Hiroshige, 1797-1858, studied in the studio of Utagawa Toyohiro. He excelled in the delineation of noted scenes, among which are the famous Fifty-three Posting-stations on the highways of the Tōkaido.
Large collections of color prints are to be found in the United States, in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, and in the Art Institute of Chicago; in London, in the British Museum, and in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The superb collection of Mr. Shigekichi Mihara in Tokyo is said to be the best in Japan. But it is not open to the public. Some fine examples are to be seen in the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum.
The Nangwa school
The Nangwa, or Southern School, originated in China and made the greatest development in the Ming and Ch‘ing Dynasty. But it was introduced to Japan by I Fu-chiu in the Kyoto Era (1716-1735) and had much influence on the literary style of painting which began to develop among scholars of Confucianism, who formed their own social community between the military class and the plebians of the Yedo Period.
The Nangwa School is therefore called Bunjin-gwa or Literati painting. In the technique of the Bunjin-gwa painting, the chiaroscuro of ink was essential. Deep and light colors, wet and dry touches of the brush, played an important role in making the pictures successful. The Nangwa painters painted mostly landscapes. But they did not try to copy nature faithfully. They were fond of traveling to see the works of nature and painted the impressions they received from it. Therefore their pictures were highly subjective. Above their pictures they usually wrote poems in Chinese. Thus Nangwa painting generally goes with calligraphic writing. However, its most essential feature is the expression of poetic thought through form and colors.
Color plt. 1. Resurrection of Buddha (N.T.)
Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art
Color plt. 2. Detail of Amida and Twenty-five Bodhisattvas (N.T.)
Reihōkwan Museum, Mt. Kōya
Color plt. 3. Kichiō-Then (N.T.)
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
Color plt. 4. Tea-jar, by Ninsei (N.T.)
Mr. Kinya Nagao’s Collection
Color plt. 5. Vessel, by Kaki-e-mon
Mr. Matasaku Shiobara’s Collection
Color plt. 6. Kara-ori Noh Costume
Mr. Kikusaburo Fikui’s Collection
Color plt. 7. Court Nobles by Sōtatsu
Imperial Household Collection
Color plt. 8. Kokei Sanshō, by Sanraku
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
Color plt. 9. Lady, by Harunobu
Mr. Shigekichi Mihara’s Collection
Color plt. 10. Gundari Myō-ō (N.T.)
Nara Imperial Household Museum
Fig. 150. Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
Therefore the trend of their pictures is transcendental, much unlike that of the Ukiyo-e, or genre painting, and the Maruyama and the Shijō schools which are attractive for the beauty of realistic expression.
After all, the Nangwa painting is rather scholarly and full of Chinese taste.
Gion Nankai, 1677-1751, a genius in literary work, studied the Chinese school and originated in Japan the style of the Nangwa School before a Chinese master of the Southern School, I Fu-chiu, came to Japan.
Sakaki Hyakusen, 1698-1753, also called Hō-hyakusen, lived in Kyoto and shared with Nankai the honor of the pioneer masters of the Nangwa School.
Taiga, 1723-1776, sometimes called Taiga-dō or Ike-Taiga, was a great master of the Nangwa painting. From childhood he excelled in painting and in writing. Usually he painted in light black with slight color, but sometimes he used a small quantity of gold with the black ink. His conception was lofty and full of poetic imagination. In the Mampuku-ji in Kyoto and in the Henjōkwō-in of Mount Koya, are preserved a number of his master works which are enrolled as national treasures. In the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum is one of his master works, which represents a famous view of Lake Seiko (Hsi-hu) in China. (Fig. 151)
Fig. 151. View of Lake Seiko in China, by Taiga
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
Buson, 1716-1783, sometimes called Yosa Buson, Shunsei, or Yahantei, an eminent master of Haikai epigram, was equally great in literati painting. His works are full of lofty feeling. A folding screen with a Chinese landscape painting, owned by the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum, is an excellent example of his work. (Fig 152)
Tani Bunchō, 1764-1841, was born in Yedo and studied painting in the atelier of Katō Bunrei. He also studied other schools, Japanese and Chinese. He was fond of painting Mount Fuji, and left us many master-works. A number of his landscape pictures in black and white are painted on walls and sliding screens at the partitions of rooms in the Shoin hall of the Honkō-ji monastery, near the Washizu station on the Tōkaido line at the western side of Lake Hamana. Some good examples of his work are also owned by the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum.
Fig. 152. Chinese Landscape, by Buson
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
Chikuden, 1777-1835, was born at Oka in Bungo. Tanomura was his family name. He studied under Tani Bunchō and also studied Chinese painting of the Ming and Ching Dynasty. On the other hand he was a scholar and a poet and had many accomplishments; but he was most gifted in landscape painting.
Kwazan, 1793-1841, was born in Yedo. His family name was Watanabe. He was a man of strong filial piety and great ambition and was a pioneer student of Dutch. He studied painting under Bunchō, Sō Shizan, and Kaneko Kinryō. He loved to paint landscapes, but excelled also in figures, flowers, and birds. His paintings are marked with vigorous strokes and daring designs. He left a large number of his works.
Urakami Shunkin, 1779-1846, Yamamoto Bai-itsu, 1783-1856, Okada Hanko, 1782-1846, Tsubaki Chinzan, 1801-1854, and Nukina Kaioku, 1778-1863, were all master painters of the Nangwa School.
The Maruyama And The shinjō schools
It was a notable aspect in the Yedo Period that the different kinds of art were brought down within the reach and understanding of the common people. Now in the world of painting the Maruyama and the Shijō Schools attracted the interest of the people in general with the realistic beauty of nature, parallel with the Ukiyo-e painting which approached the people with pictures dealing with the daily affairs of human life.
Before Maruyama Ōkyo established the Ōkyo School, and Goshun, his Shijō School, an impulse for the new style of realism was given by Chin Nampin (Shên Nan-p’in), a Chinese painter of the realistic school, who arrived at Nagasaki in the year 1731 and stayed two years.
Ōkyo, 1738-1795, the founder of the Maruyama School, was a son of a farmer in Tamba province. He first studied painting under Ishida Yūtei in Kyoto. At the same time he paid attention to the style of the Chinese masters, Sen Shunkyo (Ch'ien Shun-chü) and Kyu Ei (Chou Ying). When he reached his thirtieth year he changed his method of study and became an ardent lover of nature. He exhausted his energy in the study of people and flowers and birds from life, and finally succeeded in becoming
a great master of realism, the founder of the Maruyama School. His pictures express the national spirit. They are unlike those by Chin Nampin, which are naturally exotic. His forte was in the large scheme of composition as will be seen in the “Waves and Cranes” painted by him originally on sliding screens in the year seventeen hundred and eighty eight. (Fig. 153) The picture is owned by the Kongō-ji temple, near Kyoto;and now preserved in the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum.
Fig. 153. Waves and Cranes, by Ōkyo (N.T.)
Tokyo Imperial Household Museum
He left a large number of excellent works, among which the following are famous, and they are all national treasures:
Waves. Slightly colored on paper. Mounted as kakemono in 28 pieces. Owned by the Kongō-ji temple, now borrowed by the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum.
Peony and Peacock. Richly colored on silk Mounted as kakemono. Owned by the Emman-in, Ōtsu city.
Fig. 154. Bamboo Grove, by Ōkyo (N.T.)
A History of Japanese Art Page 21
