Masterpieces from the Ota Memorial Museum

The exhibition is organised by the Guimet Museum of Asiatic Arts, the Ota Memorial Museum, NHK and NHK promotions and with the Credit Agricole.S.A.support.

Introduction About 150 works – mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries – will be shown for only six weeks, due to their fragility and their extreme sensitivity to the light. Amongst these will be more than 81 prints, about 50 painted scrolls, painted fans, and even some illustrated manuscripts. These paintings and engravings never before seen outside their native country will offer a unique panorama of the great masters of pictorial excellence, who include : Hishikawa Moronobu, Suzuki Harunobu, Kitagawa Utamaro, Tôshûsai Sharaku, Katsushika Hokusaï, and also Utagawa Hiroshige … All painted depictions of Japanese customs and scenes from contemporary urban life evoke and refer to the former capital of Edo in both their rural and, of course, urban representations.

Two types of ukiyo-e exist: single copy paintings (called nikuhitsu ukiyo-e) created by brush by the artist directly on to paper or silk, and prints which are reproduced in several copies using the wood engraving technique, the drawing produced by a painter. The paintings are set on horizontal rolls, screens, fans and, even more commonly, on vertical rolls. The prints come in the form of separate sheets or several sheets gathered in an album and bound like a book. When we speak of ukiyo-e in its strict sense, we are generally referring to single sheet prints.

Originally the term ukiyo referred to this lowly world full of misery and suffering, as suggested by the two Chinese characters used to write it: “affliction” (uki) and “world” (yo). Then, from the seventeenth century (start of the Edo era), following a long period of internal wars when Japan entered an era of peace, the word assumed the sense of enjoying life’s pleasures in this “ephemeral world” which explains why it became to be written with other Chinese characters meaning “floating”, “light”, or “ephemeral” (uki) and “world” (yo). It also took on the connotation of “present” or “contemporary”. The term ukiyo-e therefore describes the “paintings” (e) which depict with lightness the contemporary customs and pleasures of the world in which the people of the Edo era lived. These works were first of all produced in the form of paintings by artists sprung from the ranks of merchants and artisans (chônin), and then came to enjoy a wider distribution thanks to xylographic reproduction and the development of printing from the middle of the seventeenth century. Thus they were able to be appreciated by a larger proportion of the population.

Techniques Many different colours were used, as well as a high quality, thick parchment made from blackberry bush bark. Suzuki Harunobu, a popular artist of his time, produced very delicate portraits of female beauties by using this technique and applying an innovative style. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the prints of the expressive faces of the kabuki actors, sometimes caricatures heavily influenced by Sharaku, are to be highlighted for their boldness and rarity. In the 19th century the two grand masters, Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusaï, specialised in landscapes, the former filled with evocative charm and the latter with a more dynamic inspiration.Many different colours were used, as well as a high quality, thick parchment made from blackberry bush bark. Suzuki Harunobu, a popular artist of his time, produced very delicate portraits of female beauties by using this technique and applying an innovative style. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the prints of the expressive faces of the kabuki actors, sometimes caricatures heavily influenced by Sharaku, are to be highlighted for their boldness and rarity. In the 19th century the two grand masters, Utagawa Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusaï, specialised in landscapes, the former filled with evocative charm and the latter with a more dynamic inspiration.

The ukiyo-e paintings (called nikuhitsu ukiyo-e in Japanese) are unique copy works, carried out by brush by the artist directly on to paper or silk. These works allow the full appreciation of the artist’s work, through the form of the lines and the arrangement of colour; much more so than the prints for which the painter only produces the preparatory sketch. The majority of artists from the ukiyo-e school produced such paintings in tandem with carrying out drawings for the engraving. However, certain artists, such as Kaigetsudô Ando or Isoda Koryûsai or Kuwagata Keisai, started by producing drawings for engraving, then, in the second stage of their career, they specialised in painting. Some artists, finally, took up engraving for a particular genre and painting for another, as Katsukawa Shunshô, who was the author of engraved portraits of actors and portraits of beauties through the medium of painting. Thus, it is particularly interesting to observe the differences by the same artist between his production aimed for prints and his original paintings.

Les estampes ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e prints are works printed according to the wood-engraving technique. They generally consist of one single sheet (Ichimai zuri). The production of a ukiyo-e print requires the involvement of several trades: the painter (eshi), who does the preparatory drawing, the engraver (horishi), who transfers this drawing on to a plank of wood and the printer (surishi) who carries out the final work following the artist’s instructions with regard to the application of colours. As a consequence, the painter is only generally involved with the creation of the drawing and does not engrave the work himself. Neither does he participate in the printing. The first ukiyo-e prints, at the end of the seventeenth century, were printed in black and sometimes enhanced with colours by hand. However with the improvement in printing techniques, it was soon possible to produce engravings printed with the addition of two or three colours, called benizuri-e, alluding to the scarlet tint (beni) which dominated in this type of work. Then, towards 1765, came the appearance of the first prints printed with the addition of more than three colours, which were labeled “brocade images” (nishiki-e), with reference to the shimmering motifs of the brocades. This new chromo-xylogravure technique allowed the ukiyo-e print a remarkable artistic development which can be seen from the works of such great masters as Sharaku, Hokusai and Hiroshige.

Xylographic albums Xylographic albums are collections of engravings, printed using the same technique as ukiyo-e prints. Their history is, nevertheless, older than prints on separate sheets, since the first examples go back to the start of the 17th century. It is, however, towards the end of that century when single sheet engraving appeared that xylographic works composed primarily of illustrations began to be published. These were known as ehon, or ‘book of images’. These albums shared a technical evolution similar to that of stamps and were published in great numbers by the painters of the ukiyo-e school. There was great rivalry between art lovers to support, at great expense, the publication of this kind of collection which sometimes was of a private character. This is the reason numerous works of great technical refinement and high artistic value can be found in this sphere, which often outclass cheap, mass produced single sheet prints.

Painted fans Most ukiyo-e paintings were produced on vertical or horizontal scrolls, or indeed on folding screens, but some of them were created on folding fans (ôgi). The fan in fact had not only a practical use, but was also an accessory and served as a gift. Amongst the painted fans, some were decorated swiftly and in summary fashion, in one sitting; while others, like those shown here, reveal colours applied very painstakingly. These works were probably originally gifts, which explains why they have been carefully treasured. Fans are, by necessity, fragile objects, so items in such good condition, with even their original mount, are particularly rare and precious.

The end of Edo times The first third of the 19th Century (the Bunka-Bunsei eras) matches the apogee of the merchant class culture at Edo. The Tenpô era (1830-1844), with the arrival of the arrival of the first foreign sailors, was a troubled period which, from a cultural perspective, was marked by a kind of decadence. Between the end of the Edo epoch and the Meiji period, the world of ukiyo-e experienced a time of radical change, matching the upheavals in Japanese society and the influx of new cultural influences. After the restoration of Meiji in 1868 in particular, when the country was engaged in a period of modernisation and opening up to the West, ukiyo-e was favoured for its informative aspect and found a new purpose in illustrating newspapers. However, with the implementation of new engraving techniques, such as etching or lithography, and the spread of photography, ukiyo-e gradually diminished in importance. In this context, traditional ukiyo-e was abandoned, so to speak, but thanks to certain prints-editors such as Watanabe Shôzaburô, there was a movement for the revival of wood-engraving (shin-hanga) from 1910 onwards. Today, however, only the Torri school, whose successors continue to produce for Kabuki theatre, can boast that they follow in the tradition inherited from the past masters of ukiyo-e.