Ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e (Kanji 浮世絵) is a Japanese Terme meaning “images of the floating world”. This term was applied during the time of Edo (1605 - 1868) to indicate the Estampe as well as popular and narrative painting. First of all regarded as vulgar by its representation of scenes of the daily newspaper, this kind was a great success near the Westerners after the opening forced of the Japan on the outside world in 1868.

Ukiyo (浮世, “the floating world”) refers to the impetuous culture youth which hatches in the urban centres of Edo (today Tōkyō), Ōsaka, and Kyōto and which constitutes a world with whole share. It is about an ironic allusion at the end homophon “suffering World” (憂き世), the terrestrial cycle of died and rebirth of which the Bouddhistes seek to escape.

This form of art knows a great popularity in the metropolitan culture of Edo during second half of the 17th century, being born in monochromic work from Hishikawa Moronobu in the years 1670. Initially, the prints are exclusively carried out with the Indian ink then certain tests are coloured with the brush. At the 18th century Suzuki Harunobu develops the polychrome technique of impression to produce nishiki-e .

The ukiyo-e are accessible because they can be reproduced in great series. They are mainly intended to the townsmen who are not generally sufficiently easy to offer an original work. The initial subject of the ukiyo-e was the urban life, in particular the activities and scenes of the district of the entertainments. Beautiful courtesans, massive sumotoris as of the popular actors are thus depicted engaging in gravitational activities. Thereafter, the landscapes also meet success. The political subjects and the characters exceeding the humblest layers of the company are not tolerated in these images and very seldom appear. Although sexuality is not authorized either, it appears in a recurring way in the test of ukiyo-e . The artists and the editors are sometimes punished for the creation of these shunga with the explicit sexual character.

History

The ukiyo-e can be classified in various artistic periods: the Period Edo, which includes/understands the ukiyo-e origins until approximately 1867, when the Period Meiji begins and continues until 1912. The Edo period is generally calm and thus offers an ideal environment for the development of art in a commercial form; while the Meiji era is made conspicuous by new influences whereas Japan opens in the occident.

Origins

Roots of ukiyo-e go up with urbanization which takes place at the end of the 16th century and brings to the development of a class of merchants and craftsmen who start to write fictions and to paint images which is gathered in ehon (絵本, “picture books”, which present illustrated accounts) or novels, such as the Contes of Ise ( Ise-monogatari , 1608) of Honami Koetsu. The ukiyo-e are frequently used to illustrate these books, but free themselves some gradually in the form of tests on a loose leaf (ex: postcard or kakemono-e ) or of posters for the theater Kabuki . The sources of inspiration are in the beginning the tales and works of Chinese Art. Many stories rest on the life and the urban culture and the tourist guides are also popular and overall are of commercial nature and largely widespread. Hishikawa Moronobu, which used already polychrome painting, becomes very influential at the end of the years 1670.

The rise of the Ukiyo-e

Half of the 18th century, the techniques allow the production of tests color, called nishiki-e , the ukiyo-e which are reproduced on the postcards and the calendars were produced as from this period. Utamaro, Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Sharaku is the artists dominating of the time. Following the study of European art, the linear prospect makes its appearance and other ideas are comparable. Works of Katsushika Hokusai represent especially the nature and of the landscapes. Its Trentesix sights of the mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景, Fugaku sanjurokkei ) is published starting from approximately 1831. Ando Hiroshige and Kunisada Utagawa creates many images whose reasons are inspired by nature.

In 1842, within the framework of the Reform Tenpo, images representing of the courtesans, the Geisha S or of the actors (for example: onnagata ) is prohibited. These topics join again nevertheless with success as soon as they are again authorized.

During the era Kaei (1848-1854), many ships of foreign merchants arrive at Japan. The ukiyo-e of the time reflect the change cultural.

The opening of Japan

Following the Restoration Meiji in 1868, Japan opens with the imports occident, in particular the Photographie and the techniques of Imprimerie. The natural colors resulting from plants used in the ukiyo-e are replaced by chemical colors anilinées imported Germany. Whereas the ukiyo-e , largely supplanted by photography, pass from mode to Japan, during the Bunmei-kaika (文明開化, the movement of occidentalization of Japan at the beginning of the Meiji era), they become a source of inspiration in Europe for the Cubisme like for many impressionist painters among which Van Gogh, Monet, Degas or Klimt. This influence is called Japonisme.

At the 20th century century, during the periods Taishō and Shōwa, the ukiyo-e knows a rebirth in the form of the movements Shin-Hanga and sōsaku hanga which seeks both to be distinguished from the tradition of commercial art of mass. Ironically, the current shin hanga , literally “new tests”, was largely encouraged by exports to the the United States of America. Taking as a starting point the European impressionism, the artists integrate Western elements such as the plays of light and the expression of personal mood but concentrates on strictly traditional topics. The principal editor is then Watanabe Shozaburo with which one attribute the creation of the movement. Among the principal artists, one can quote Shinsui Ito and Kawase Hasui which is high with the row of Alive National treasures by the Japanese government.

The movement sōsaku hanga (litéralement “creative test”), less famous, adopts a Western design of the Art: the product of the Creativity of the artists, creativity which supplants the artisanal aspect . Traditionally, the stages of realization of the ukiyo-e - the drawing, engraving, impression and publication - separate and are carried out by different and highly specialized people. Sōsaku hanga defends the point of view according to which the artist should be implied at each stage of the production. The movement east establishes formally with the formation of the Japanese company of creative tests in 1918 but is however a business success less than that of the shin hanga whose Western collectors prefer the aspect more traditionally Japanese. ukiyo-e are always produced today and remain an influential form of art, inspiring in particular the Manga and the Anime .

Realization of a ukiyo-e

The tests of ukiyo-e are produced in the following way:
  1. the artist carries out a main drawing with the Encre.
  2. the craftsmen stick this drawing face against a block of wood by cutting out the zones where paper is white, thus leaving the opposite drawing in relief on the block but destroying original work in the process.
  3. This block is ink and printed so as to produce almost perfect copies of the original.
  4. These tests are in their turn stuck to new blocks and the zones of the drawing to be coloured of a particular color are left in relief. Each block prints at least a color in the final image.
  5. the set of blocks of resulting wood is ink in the various colors and applied successively to paper. The final impression carries the reasons for each block, some being applied more once in order to obtain the depth of desired color.

Principal artists

See also: list of the painters of '' Ukiyo-e '

Source

  • National museum of Asian Arts, Guimet: http://www.museeguimet.fr/

See too

External bonds

  • the world floating of the ukiyô-e, the perenniality of transitory by Danielle Elisseeff, Researcher with the EHESS.
  • Rubrique of bonds devoted to the '' Ukiyo-e '' on dmoz.org
  • the art of the print of Japan
  • has Guide to the Ukiyo-e Sites off the Internet Page containing of very many bonds, by Hans Olof Johansson.
  • Side gallery off Hanga Gallery an about sixty artists introduced with their biography and their works.
  • Artist biographies
  • Blog on the Japanese print

Random links:Choisy | Seeed | Monmadalès | Separation of retina | William Drury | Investissement_de_portefeuille