UNESCO travelling exhibition: Japanese woodcuts

colours hardly disguised the importance o f design which the dominant line T h e two-colour beni-e was used to greatest effect b y the two T o n i artists always emphasizes. Fo r the first time in Eastern a r t t he h uma n form appears Kiyomitsu a n d Kiyohiro, who seem to have found inspiration i n its very i n these woodcuts as a principal element o f design. But it was rather for limitations. But it was not to be supposed t h a t multiple printing would their formal values, relations o f line a n d o f colour, t h a t they interested so stop there, a n d another designer, Ichikawa Toyonobu, as well as Masanobu, mu c h the painters o f t he eighties a n d nineties i n Paris, to wh om they served was soon experimenting with the over-printing o f one colour on another, as a n introduction to the Eastern aesthetic. T h e influence is to b e seen in producing a rich purple, a n d b y 1754 h e h a d succeeded in producing a print the lithographs o f Toulouse-Lautrec a n d i n t h e paintings o f Ma n e t a n d Degas. from three-colour blocks without losing t he exactness o f the register. This Fo r the present generation it is perhaps chiefly significant as a successful widening o f the scope a n d technical possibilities o f the woodcut ended the attempt to produce work for a wide. public without loss o f quality, a n d to period o f development, which, like so ma n y times o f experiment, has a youth, treat themes o f common interest, freshness a n d vigour never reached again; b u t it also prepared the wa y for T h e 100 prints shown cover nearly two hund r ed years, b u t have been the appearance o f a genius, a m a n whose personality was revealed to t he world chosen to represent all the principal artists o f the school i n their most cha- i n a new vision o f t he poignant beauty o f youth. This was Harunobu, who racteristic a n d famous subjects, without regard to rarity. T h e splendid in less t h a n six years designed enough masterpieces to furnish a whole exhi designs o f t he Kwaigetsudo (it is now generally agreed t ha t for a short time bition. H e was fortunate, not only in the time o f his maturity, b u t also in abou t 1714 there were three artists using this first-name on their woodcuts) t h e circle o f witty a n d sensitive me n to which h e belonged, me n who moreover are so rare as to exist in only one o r two impressions; while the landscapes o f commanded sufficient financial resources to permit the use o f the finest hosho Hokusai a n d Hiroshige c an still b e found i n good state b y modest collectors. paper, heavier a n d o f finer texture t h a n a ny used hitherto, could afford the Moronobu worked mainly on book illustration, rather coarsely executed b u t expense o f cutting five separate colour blocks, a n d h a d the time a n d skill with subtle a n d witty characterization a n d a n often splendid rhythm, while needed to print from them. Some o f t he members o f this " c l ub " were from about 1675 h e designed separate prints o f which three from his views poets, a n d for the next 50 years the Ukiyo-e artists were often intimate with i n the Yoshiwara o f about 168o are exhibited. Before his death, probably t he Kyoka poets who were turning poetic epigrams i n contemporary variation i n 1694, t he practice o f colouring prints b y h a n d h a d started. T h e next o n the classic work o f 700 o r 800 years earlier. Although the stage still found period is dominated b y the actor prints o f the T o n i family founded b y T o n i its votaries in another great family o f designers—the Katsukawa founded by Kiyonobu the First about 1695 a n d continuing till the end o f the period o f the Shunsho—there was henceforward a greater range a n d dep t h o f subject "primitives"; t h a t is to say, before the innovation o f the full colour print i n 1764. available to the print designers, a n d ma n y were the classic themes interpreted A family tradition i n J a p a n was not maintained b y strict heredity, b u t t he right i n the lively, witty, b u t no t frivolous work which they produced. to the succession t o the family n ame was by designation o r adoption, and the actual relationships between the T o n i designers is obscure a n d o f little BASIL GRAY, importance. I t is established, however, t h a t more t h a n one artist used the n ame o f Kiyonobu, a n d it is believed t h a t there were three successful artists Keeper, Department o f Oriental signing Kiyomasu, o f wh om the first retired o r died abou t 1716. T h e early Antiquities, British Museum, London. T o n i prints show great exuberance o f line, a n d Kiyomasu the First's actors seem hardly to b e contained within the limits o f the paper. T h e red-lead (tan) used for colouring b y h a n d a t this time enhances the forceful character of these designs. T h e working life o f Ok umu r a Masanobu covered practically the whole o f the "primitive" period a n d greatly influenced it. H e was for some fifteen years also a publisher o f prints, a n d his interest i n t he craft of cutting a n d printing enabled h i m to perfect two technical improvements. T h e first was the use o f black lacquer paint a n d gold-dust i n the colouring o f prints—a typical instance o f the adoption by the Ukiyo-e artists o f technique from t h e old Tosa painters. T h e second was the printing o f designs with the addition o f two colour blocks from abou t 1743- I t was not actually Masa nobu's invention, for it h a d been used years before in book printing a n d no doubt derived from China, as has been mentioned; b u t Masanobu perfected it for use o n separate prints, employing always pink (beni) a n d green—whence the n ame o f the two colour prints o f beni-e. Masanobu himself was a felicitous designer, no t only o f actor prints b u t also o f b(jin (women), who are a t the same time fashion plates, displaying the splendid costumes o f the day, and interpretations i n Ukiyo-e style o f classic themes o r romantic situations. Besides this, h e was interested i n the theory o f perspective, o f which some inkling must have reached h im from t he handful o f students o f t h e Dutch " ba r ba r i an " science. 1 0 II