- "I don't want to take anything but a paintbrush"
- "What future do you want?" It is enough to have a moment without attachment."
"Daughter of Ukiyo-e", also known as "Glare", narrates the wonderful life of the talented female painter Katsushika, who single-handedly split the inherent fate of women in the 19th century in the dilemma of the era of the general low status of Japanese women.
Katsushika Hokusai, a ukiyo-e painter of the Edo period in Japan, is the only Japanese to be selected as one of the "100 Celebrities Who Influenced the World in the Millennium", and Katsushika is supposed to be Katsushika Hokusai's second daughter, nicknamed Aei, and "Should Be" is her picture number.
First, Ah Rong from memory, all she heard and saw around her were all kinds of paintings of her father, and unconsciously she had learned to paint side by side with her father's apprentices, and she remembered the first time she looked at the pen handed over by her father, full of joy, and everything in front of her eyes was dazzling.
Compared with her painting skills, Ah Rong's appearance is too plain, and her mother is worried that she will not be able to marry, and someone proposes to marry her in a hurry. After marriage, Ah Rong, as informal as in her mother's life, drinks and likes to smoke, loves to paint more than to do housework, and even in order to paint more, it also causes great dissatisfaction from her cold husband, who often says that she is "cold and ruthless, a scum among women." If it is said that there is no housework plus sexual indifference, and the husband can barely endure, then, as a painter, the painting skills are despised by the wife, which is too painful for each other.
"This man doesn't understand anything, he's also a painter, but the kind of fiery heart that can't put down the paintbrush, he doesn't have, he doesn't understand." Ah Rong looked down at her husband and thought intently, "Yes, I am hokusai's daughter, but my father's talent, I have not inherited a star and a half, I can only turn in a painful circle in situ, I have been painting for almost 20 years, the lines are still so weak, I can't tune out the color I want, so I want to paint, I want to paint more, I don't have time to take care of your trivialities"... Therefore, Ah Rong chose to break up and leave with her husband, and returned to her mother's house to simply help her father.
Old Father Katsushika Hokusai, who was already a well-known ukiyo-e painter in Japan at that time, and Ah Rong, as his daughter, had a dazzling vision, and his vision was naturally extraordinary, and his personality was not willing to lose. Ikeda Zenjiro, later the master of Spring Palace painting, Keizai Hidezumi, was not only respected by the dealers, but also recognized by Arong's father.
There is a detail in the book about Ah Rong's innocence and stubbornness, which makes people can't help but read it.
"No, I mean that time I quarreled for Mao, you had to say that Mao was straight, and you didn't listen to any persuasion, I told you that the straight painting is not good." You are in a hurry, saying that your hair is not so crooked, and you have to open your clothes on the spot. At one meeting, Ikeda Zenjiro teased Ah Rong kindly.
At that time, Ah Rong was 17 years old and illustrated Yan Ben for the first time. Ah Rong, who was assigned to this kind of work for the first time, was bent on painting well and was not willing to lose to others. Provoked by Ikeda Zenjiro, Ah Rong was unconvinced, in fact, she went to the bathhouse to carefully observe at that time, some of the women's lower body was only a thin layer of hair, some were as hard as a mane brush forward, and some were curved and curved in black and white. What kind of hair looks good on the picture. Ah Rong had seen countless times, and he almost fainted in the bathhouse, but he still couldn't come to a conclusion."
This passage is slightly erotic, but it never gives people a feeling of fornication, but it makes people have a kind of solemn respect for Ah Rong in their hearts, and her serious dedication to art makes Ah Rong dream about everything around him.
Later, Arong and Ikeda Zenjiro had a brief affection, and also loved this prodigal son from the bottom of their hearts, but they had no choice but to make people in the world, and Ikeda Zenjiro eventually married someone else, making Arong die alone as a ukiyo-e daughter.
Ah Rong always takes the level of his father's ukiyo-e to set strict demands on himself, and never forgets to hone his strength in ukiyo-e. Regarding Ah Rong's arrogance, As a father, Katsushika Hokusai once said: "That lady wants to paint well no matter what she draws, and will not say that she can't paint well." ”
Second, as long as Ah Rong holds the paintbrush in his hand, there is no need to consider other redundancies, in the future Ah Rong must concentrate on painting, since Providence let Ah Rong pick up the paintbrush, Ah Rong is willing to hold on to it for life, not to live up to the destiny, everything else can be abandoned, but this determination is not a major realization that makes Ah Rong tremble with excitement, in the end painting is her way of making a living, she has been writing since childhood, and now she is still on the way of cultivation, but she is always very happy as long as she can paint
Once, in order to make a tatami mat basket of straw weaving patterns, Ah Rong often ran to the tatami shop to observe people's patterns, and the owner of the tatami shop thought that she had another plot and splashed her with water. But she was so open-minded that she finally drew a pattern that satisfied herself, and even her always picky father gave "good" praise.
The so-called "tiger father without dogs", although throughout her life, Ah Rong almost existed as the assistant of her father Katsushika Hokusai, but she also benefited greatly from the teachings of her father Katsushika Hokusai, especially in her later years, the technique of ukiyo-e was almost at its peak, and naturally she learned a lot of ukiyo-e artistic essence.
The middle-aged Ah Rong showed outstanding talent in ukiyo-e painting techniques, and her painting of light and shadow and beauty were excellent. At that time, people even began to call her "Female Hokusai". Even Katsushika Hokusai commented on her daughter, saying, "If you want to draw a beautiful picture, your wrist should be above mine." ”
In order to paint a good wandering girl (prostitute), she went in and out of the flower street Willow Lane without scruples, and legend has it that she even prostituted male prostitutes. Although people criticized her for this move, in Ah Rong's eyes, in those places she saw countless beautiful clothes, and those colors and patterns were rarely seen on the street.
As a female painter, Katsushika should be a posterity of the ukiyo-e works are not many, it seems that there are only about ten, but the only ones are enough to make people unquestionably call her: a rare master of ukiyo-e art.
Opening the cover of "Ukiyo-e Daughter", it is Ah Rong's famous "Night Cherry Blossom Beauty Picture": the background is pitch black night, the branches only leave silhouettes, the stars in the night sky are deep and lonely, a woman's pen painting, through the candlelight of the stone lantern, reflecting the cherry blossoms and the white arms and faces of the beauty, as well as the vermilion dark lines at the feet, the clever combination of light and shadow, staggered to set off the beauty of the woman, an unexpected, magical beauty, unforgettable.
Third, no matter what, we can only bury our heads and go forward, people live, there is no way back
Ah Rong has been childless and childless all his life, and has been dragged down by the viciousness of his nephew for most of the time, after the death of his father Katsushika Hokusai at the age of 90, the 67-year-old Ah Rong actually did not know the end. Aei's younger brother became the adopted son of the Kase family and changed his name to Kasezaki Shiro, and it is said in the ukiyo-e daughter that Aei was invited by his brother to live at home, although he did not get along well with his sister-in-law, but his brother was always very kind to her.
In the suicide note of Shirai Tachi, the daughter of Saki Shiro, it is written that in the summer of 1857, a man named Fumizo in Todo-do Tosuka was supposed to go to paint katsushimi, and Katsushika should have gone out with a paintbrush in his arms, and there was no news after that...
"Ukiyo-e Daughter" not only describes the life of Katsushika's father and daughter, but also depicts the painting techniques of ukiyo-e in detail in many places, using paper, paint, carving and printing templates, and meticulous details, always reminiscent of the spirit of Japanese craftsmen. Nowadays, people like handmade, in addition to the temperature of the hand, the essence of the craftsman may also play an indispensable role in it.
The anime "100 Days Red", adapted from manga artist Hyaru Sugiura, is based on Katsushika's life, and those who are interested can search for it.