18 Sept 2015

EDO - ukiyo-E, Edo-E, Azuma-E prints and paintings

LINK
http://darumamuseumgallery.blogspot.jp/2011/12/ukiyo-e-woodblock.html

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Ukiyo-e 浮世絵 "pictures of the floating world"
Ukiyoe

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a genre of woodblock prints and paintings that flourished in Japan from the 17th through 19th centuries. Aimed at the prosperous merchant class in the urbanizing Edo period (1603–1867), depictions of beautiful women; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica were amongst the popular themes.

3 Production
- - - 3.1 Paintings
- - - 3.2 Print production
Ukiyo-e prints were the works of teams of artisans in several workshops; it was rare for designers to cut their own woodblocks. Labour was divided into four groups: the publisher, who commissioned, promoted, and distributed the prints; the artists, who provided the design image; the woodcarvers, who prepared the woodblocks for printing; and the printers, who made impressions of the woodblocks on paper. Normally only the names of the artist and publisher were credited on the finished print.
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. shokunin  職人 craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

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There are quite a few Daruma in the world of Ukiyo-E.

. Ukiyo-e in the Daruma Museum .


. Hanga 版画 in the Daruma Museum .




. Woodblock prints with food - hanga 版画 .

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- quote -
ukiyo-e 浮世絵
Lit. pictures of the floating world. Paintings and woodblock prints of genre themes developed from the mid-Edo to early Meiji periods, supported by the people in the middle class of society (shomin 庶民, or common people) mainly in the city of Edo. Because of this locality, ukiyo-e was also called *edo-e 江戸絵 or azuma-e 東絵 (eastern pictures; *azuma nishiki-e 東錦絵) during the Edo period. In the broader sense of the term, however, ukiyo-e includes various local paintings appreciated by common people in the Edo period all over Japan, such as *ootsu-e 大津絵 (comical, folk painting produced in Ootsu, Shiga prefecture), *nagasaki hanga 長崎版画 (woodblock prints depicting foreign people and objects seen in Nagasaki, Nagasaki prefecture), and *kamigata-e 上方絵 (woodblock prints produced in the Kyoto-Osaka area kamigata 上方, mostly portrayals of the *kabuki 歌舞伎 actors popular there).

The term ukiyo-e, which is first found in literature during the first half of the 1680's, derives from the fact that they depict the activities of a transient (floating), but therefore enjoyable world. Pictures of beautiful women *bijinga 美人画 and young boys, particularly the courtesans of the pleasure quarters yuujo 遊女, scenes from kabuki plays shibai-e 芝居絵 and portraits of popular actors *yakusha-e 役者絵, and pornographic pictures *shunga 春画 are the three major subjects of ukiyo-e. Literary themes taken from poems and stories from Japan and China were also popular, pictures of heroic warriors *musha-e 武者絵 being particularly favoured throughout the period. Often the classic themes were parodied or represented in mundane, contemporary circumstances (see *mitate-e 見立絵). Well-known landscape prints fuukei hanga 風景版画 and pictures of birds and flowers *kachouga 花鳥画 form just one of the later phases in the complex development of ukiyo-e.

Ukiyo-e were mass-produced in order to fulfill a great demand among middle-class people, who were their major appreciators. Therefore, the principal form of ukiyo-e were woodblock prints, which were planned by the publisher hanmoto 版元 and produced in collaboration with the painter/designer *eshi 絵師, carver horishi 彫師 and printer surishi 摺師.
Even hand-paintings *nikuhitsuga 肉筆画 were produced in large quantities in workshops under the direction of a master artist who designed the product, supervised its coloring by his pupils and signed them . Because of the vagaries of this studio system several versions of the same painting with slight differences often exist in ukiyo-e.

Art historically, ukiyo-e is placed at the end of the development of *kinseishoki fuuzokuga 近世初期風俗画 (genre painting of the Early Modern period). Although early ukiyo-e artists signed themselves as painters of *yamato-e やまと絵, suggesting that ukiyo-e succeeded the tradition of native Japanese paintings, the influence of various pictorial styles of the period, including that of the *Kanouha 狩野派, *Tosaha 土佐派, *youfuuga 洋風画 (western style painting) and *shaseiga 写生画(realistic painting), can be found in ukiyo-e . The history of ukiyo-e can be devided into three periods.

Period 1) Meireki 明暦 to Houreki 宝暦 eras (1655-1764)
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Period 2) Meiwa 明和 to Kansei 寛政 eras (1764-1801)
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Period 3) Kyouwa 享和 to Keiou 慶応 eras (1801-68)



edo-e 江戸絵
Also azuma nishiki-e 東錦絵.
A general term applied to all full-color woodblock prints ukiyo-e 浮世絵 produced in the city of Edo (modern Tokyo), especially, single-sheet *ichimai-e 一枚絵 or series of such prints offered for sale to the public in commercial editions. Prints of this type that were made in Osaka-Kyoto were called *kamigata-e 上方絵. By the late 1760's full-color woodblock prints, alone or in series, had come to be a popular souvenir or gift from Edo , and the term is thought to have gained popularity among people living in the provinces. Santou Kyouden 山東京伝 (1761-1816) in a short popular novel *kibyoushi 黄表紙 published in 1782 makes an early reference to the term, noting that edo-e 江戸ゑ or azumaya no nishiki-e あづまやのにしきへ were famous products, meibutsu 名物 from Edo.



azuma nishiki-e 東錦絵
Also written 吾妻錦絵, *nishiki-e 錦絵, azuma-e 東絵, edo-e 江戸絵.
Brocade pictures.
Full color woodblock prints in the *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 style. The term nishiki-e is derived from the supposed resemblance of these prints to multicolored brocade fabrics. Azuma-e (Eastern pictures) and edo-e (Edo pictures), derive their names from the fact that full color prints were originally a specialty of the city of Edo, and thus a favorite souvenir for visitors from the provinces. The earliest known full color prints date to 1765. The term azuma nishiki-e (brocade pictures of the East), appears almost immediately on the wrapper for the series, Eight Views of the Household *Zashiki hakkei 座敷八景, by Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木春信 (.1725-70), published around 1766. Other contemporary sources also refer to these prints as azuma nishiki-e, but eventually the term was abbreviated to nishiki-e. With the spread of full color printing to other parts of Japan, especially to the kamigata 上方 area (present day Osaka-Kyoto), the terms azuma-e, azuma nishiki-e, and edo-e came to mean prints produced specifically in Edo as opposed to other cities.

- Read more :
- source : JAANUS -


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Ukiyo-e (浮世絵)
literally "pictures of the floating world"

is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints (or woodcuts) and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan.

Usually the word ukiyo is literally translated as "floating world" in English, referring to a conception of an evanescent world, impermanent, fleeting beauty and a realm of entertainments (kabuki, courtesans, geisha) divorced from the responsibilities of the mundane, everyday world; "pictures of the floating world", i.e. ukiyo-e, are considered a genre unto themselves.

The contemporary novelist Asai Ryōi, in his Ukiyo monogatari (浮世物語, "Tales of the Floating World", c. 1661?), provides some insight into the concept of the floating world:

... Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; ... refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world...
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