Japanese Woodblock Prints. Andreas Marks

Japanese Woodblock Prints - Andreas Marks


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women proved to be more suitable for serialization and a wide range of devices like the Eight Views (hakkei) developed. Generally speaking, series are a clever invention by the publishers to bind consumers to their products. Titled series of prints with related designs were created to encourage customer’s loyalty. In the past but also today, consumers were inclined to complete the series once another design got available.

      Kunisada. 1854. “Fifty-four— Dream of Ukihashi” (Gojūyon—Yume no ukihashi), from an untitled series “A Comparison of Present Genji Brocade Prints” (Ima Genji nishiki-e awase). Chūban. Publisher: Sanoya Kihei. Library of Congress.

      In the following chapters, print designers and publishers are presented who created important single prints as well as print series from the mid-seventeenth up to the early twentieth century. Whenever possible, biographical details are given as well as lists of their major works. Representative works by each designer and publisher will provide visual access to them. The artists are listed in chronological order, thus creating a historical overview of Japanese woodblock prints from Kiyonobu (1664–1729) until Kokunimasa (1874–1944).

      Note to Readers

      The selection of artists and publishers is based upon their activity and importance to the history of Japanese woodblock prints from the late sixteenth to the early twentieth century.

      Artists

      The artists are presented in a chronological order, to provide a visual account of the development of Japanese woodblock prints from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. The name of the artist used in the header reflects the best-known name, e.g. Hokusai and not Shunrō, Iitsu etc. The Japanese name system for artists during the Edo period was extremely complex. Apart from family names (uji), we distinguish between childhood names (yōmyō) and given/common names (zokushō/ zokumyō). Print artists had special artist surnames (gasei) reflecting the painting tradition they followed (ha), e.g. Torii, Utagawa, or Kikugawa. Artist names (azana) such as Toyokuni or Kunisada were preceded by various art names (gagō) that frequently ended in -sai or -tei like Chōbunsai, Gototei, or Ichiyūsai. To confer a posthumous Buddhist name (hōmyō) after death was a common practice but these names are not known for all artists.

      Publishers

      The publishers are presented in a chronological order based on dates (estimated or known) when each enterprise was started. The list of selected works consists of series otherwise stated.

      Captions and Dating

      The captions to the plates include artist name, series title, print title, publisher, medium, size, and date. All dates before January 1, 1873 (the day when Japan started to use the Gregorian calendar) refer to the traditional Japanese lunisolar calendar. A date in the lunisolar calendar is not equivalent to the “same” date in the Gregorian calendar, e.g. the fifteenth day of the twelfth month 1864 is not equivalent to December 15, 1864 but in fact January 12, 1865, almost one month later. Dates since 1873 refer to today’s Gregorian calendar.

      Table of approximate print sizes

Width x Height Width x Height
ōban 27 x 39 cm 10.6 x 15.4 in.
hosoban 15 x 33 cm 5.9 x 13 in.
chūban 19 x 26 cm 7.5 x 10 in.
aiban 23 x 33 cm 9 x 13 in.
hashira-e 12 x 73 cm 4.7 x 28.7 in.
ōtanzaku 39 x 17 cm 15.4 x 6.7 in.
shikishiban 19 x 22 cm 7.5 x 8.7 in.

      artists

      1892 Toshikage Memorial portrait of Yoshitoshi. ōban. Publisher: Akiyama Buemon. Private Collection.

      This chapter contains the most prominent artists of Japanese wood-block prints between the late seventeenth and the early twentieth century. Artists like Utamaro or Kunisada were well-known during their day and considered masters of the form, and Sharaku, for example, is heavily sought by collectors today. Throughout the artists’ careers, they generally designed several hundred or even thousands of prints of different motifs and sizes for various publishers. Designs by Hiroshige, Hokusai, and others are still reproduced today using the same production techniques—but many fundamental details about the production process and the lives of the artists are now unknown.

      Unsolved questions are how designs were conceived in general and how the actual printing process got started. Did an artist go to a publisher with a drawing asking to publish it, or did he send one of his disciples or someone else from his studio? Did a publisher or his clerk go to an artist with a suggestion for a print hoping that he would take on the task and create a unique design to his liking? We know that in some cases a third person, like a business owner, patron of an actor, poetry club, etc. financed designs but this seems to have been an exception rather than the general rule. Overall, the origin of a print seems to be actually comparable to that of a book today. An upcoming artist almost certainly went to a publisher himself, trying to convince him of the success of his design, much like today when a hitherto unpublished author tries to find a publisher for a book he has in mind. First, the young artist might have approached large publishing companies he already had contact with through his master and it is possible that his master recommended him or even turned down a project to support his disciple. If the first choice of publisher was not interested the young artist went on to see other publishers. The young artists’ initial payment was little if not nominal as he was still unknown and his design a sizeable risk to the publisher. If successful, the young talent was able to make himself a name and the publishers raised the payment and now started to come to him for designs. Over the years, a relationship between artist and publisher would be established and the artist would gain more freedom in his endeavors or be able to demand from the publisher the hiring of a specific woodblock cutter who he felt best for his design. To give an example of a long-term relation, Yamaguchiya Tōbei, the most active publisher in ukiyo-e history (who produced prints from c.1805 to 1895) issued in fifty-plus years, between c.1813 and 1864, around 700 different designs of Kunisada, the most active artist in ukiyo-e history.

      Details of the design process are also not known today, starting with the inspiration, for example, for actor prints. How often did a print artist actually visit the kabuki theater to see a performance in order to be able to accurately capture a specific scene or an actor’s pose? Did he attend rehearsals or the openings? Did each artist go by himself or did several get together for a visit to the theaters? How deep was the rivalry or the companionship between the artists? How often did an artist visit the pleasure quarters to find inspiration for beauty prints and also for the very detailed erotic prints?

      Biographical information about most of the artists is scarce as well. It seems that people from all classes could become print artists, if they were talented enough of course. Of Koryūsai, Eishi, Eisen, Chikanobu, and Kiyochika we know that they were originally from samurai families. Hiroshige’s and Kyōsai’s fathers were fire officers; Kiyonaga and Shigemasa were sons of booksellers; Yoshitoshi and Gekkō came from merchant families. Other artists like Kiyonobu, the son of an actor, and Eizan, the son of a Kanō-school painter, were already born into artistic families. In most cases, print artists


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