As a unique national art, ukiyo-e is the most authentic portrayal of the Japanese people's heartfelt expression and national characteristics, and it is also a full embodiment of the aesthetics in the bones of the Japanese people, while the beauty painting theme in ukiyo-e more vividly reflects the charm of ukiyo-e and the Japanese people's ultimate pursuit of beauty.
The early Japanese ukiyo-e painting borrowed the artistic style of Chinese Tang Dynasty female paintings, such as Zhou Fang's "Hairpin Flower Lady Picture", in which the gelatinous skin, gorgeous clothing and noble and elegant style of the female women can be glimpsed in the early meat pen ukiyo-beauty painting and the mature beauty painting.
During the Period from Hironaga to Hirofumi (1624-1672) in Japan, the early ukiyo-e works were deeply influenced by Chinese genre paintings, and similar artistic styles appeared in both content and form. The technique of expressing the beauty of women was widely appreciated by the community, and ukiyo-e painters specialized in painting beauty.
Ukiyo-e has gone through hundreds of years and has its own unique charm, today we will unveil the veil of ukiyo-e full of mysterious charm, revealing its most authentic face -
Ukiyo-e Painting Award! Enjoy more than 100 masterpieces by 24 painters, beauty paintings from the source + development + allusions + anecdotes, taste the "essence" of Japanese fun
Ukiyo-e
There is a book to the United States, edited by Tang Lili
November 2021
Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press - There are books to the United States
In this book, let's look at how the deepest beauty of the Japanese nation is interpreted on drawing paper through this typical "aesthetic world" art
Lingchuan Shixuan
The progenitor of ukiyo-e art
From an early age, Lingchuan Shixuan studied with his father and learned to draw and draw. When he was less than twenty years old, Lingchuan Shibu went to Edo alone to study painting, and he shuttled between Ichii to draw illustrations for Ichii novels, which laid a solid foundation for his development in painting creation.
Most notably, in 1672 he published his first signed picture book, One Hundred Samurai, which made him leap from an anonymous painter, Yoshibei Ryokawa, to a ukiyo-e painter.
This picture book depicts the life of Edo customs centered on amusement and kabuki, and also left behind Edo period painting evidence for future generations. Taking this opportunity, Lingchuan Shixuan became famous in the woodcut illustration publishing industry and became a representative painter of the emerging school in Japan at that time.
Heguo Baizhang (1695)
Later, he developed the subject of beauty painting according to the needs of the market, using Yoshihara's prostitutes as the prototype, drawing a large number of single beauty pictures and a small number of beautiful portraits. Although this kind of hand-drawn works are called "meat brush paintings" in Japanese and are not strictly speaking the mainstream of ukiyo-e, these works by Lingchuan Shimon set a precedent for later ukiyo-e prints of beauty figures.
hoofer
Silk is colored
78.1 cm × 41.9 cm
1615-1668
Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The most prominent feature of this hand-painted beauty figure is the kimono of this gorgeous circular pattern worn by the woman in the painting. The kimono is based on black, embroidered with red, blue and white patterns on the skirt, back and cuffs, and the pattern is rich in detail, showing an embroidered feel effect, making this kimono look elegant and unique, setting off the elegant temperament of women.
At that time, the aesthetic of society was biased towards extravagant ornate style, and people tried to display gorgeous clothing, which was reflected in the decoration of houses and flower-viewing costumes. In this work, Lingchuan Shifun painstakingly recreates the details of Yoshihara's women's fashion as well as the latest fashion textile patterns.
This is related to the fact that he himself came from a family that made a living in the embroidery industry of sewing foils, and he studied embroidery patterns with his father in his early years, which laid a solid foundation for him to become a ukiyo-e painter.
Yunobu Nishikawa
Kyoto Ukiyo-e Painted Sacred Hand
Born in Kyoto, Nishikawa Yushin was one of the most accomplished and influential ukiyo-e painters in Kyoto in the pre-Edo period, and together with Edo's Ryokawa Shimon, he was known as the two peaks of the early ukiyo-e period, most famous for his picture books and meat brush Chungu paintings.
The women he paints, whether from all levels of society and industries, reveal an extremely lyrical atmosphere, and his illustrations and flesh strokes show his attachment to traditional painting styles.
Gong Yi Tu (1716-1735)
In 1723, Yushin published an ink-folded picture book, "Hundred Girls Pin Ding", which was very successful. The book depicts in detail the images of women from all walks of life, from the upper class to the street. Yushin Nishikawa depicts round-faced beauties with smooth and soft brushstrokes, which has also become his unique styling feature and has been highly praised.
The book later became known as an encyclopedia of women's occupations in the mid-Edo period. The success of "100 Girls Pin Ding" brought his artistic fame from Kyoto Osaka to Edo, and he began to draw a large number of ukiyo-e illustrations.
Three beauties
Flesh pen painting (paper with color)
36.2 cm × 53.3 cm
Early 18th century
The mid-Edo period poet, painter, and Confucian Yanagisawa Kien (1704-1758) said in his book Essays: "When it comes to ukiyo-e, we may first recommend Ukiyo-e (1652-1724), but in fact, there are many other excellent painters, such as Okumura Masanobu, Torii Kiyonobu, Anduku Kaigedo, etc., but Nishikawa Yushin's painting skills are unmatched, and he is indeed a ukiyo-e genius." ”
From this sentence, it can be imagined how highly praised Nishikawa Yushin received at that time. This "Three Beauties" is one of The representative works of Yunobu Nishikawa and is quite praised. This is a very beautiful meat painting. The rosy and charming images of the three beauties in the painting are both cute and elegant.
The clever composition of the figures, the echo and rhythm of the colors, and the elegant lines are all the shining points of this work. The beauty in Nishikawa's work is considered to be closer to the real female figure of the time, weakening the stylized and idealized image representation in the works of contemporaries, which is really valuable in the early works of ukiyo-e.
A wandering girl and maid playing with puppies
58.4 cm × 83.2 cm
1716–1736
In this work, a richly dressed wandering girl walks on a balcony, holding a puppy tied with a red leather leash. The maid, who looked like a teenager next to her, threw a ball of thread to the cheerful puppy, who had a red rope collar around his neck and a small brass bell tied to it.
This image seems to come from a scene in The Tale of Genji, where Kashiwaki and many noble princes take a bow in rokujo-in. Because of a kitten, the curtain of the female third house was lifted, and she looked back, and the noble and elegant posture made the peeking Cypress lose her mind.
This story scene later became a typical scene of beautiful women being spied on, and it was also a subject that was often expressed. Nishikawa Yunobu replaced the princess in the story with a wandering girl from Yoshihara in Kyoto, a cat with a dog, and a courtier into a young woman with a ball of thread.
The elegant and quiet atmosphere of the whole work is in stark contrast to the work of the Edo painter who is full of liveliness and movement. The innovation of image allusions in literary works also shows the cultural heritage of Nishikawa Yushin in meat pen ukiyo-e.
Harunobu Suzuki
Turn on the beauty of the nishiki painting light to paint everyone
As a ukiyo-e master in the middle of Edo, the relationship between the teacher and the successor has always been inconclusive, and it is believed in the "Supplementary Ukiyo-e Class Examination" that Suzuki Harinobu was a student of Nishimura Shigenaga, and the Current Japanese academic circles are more focused on this statement.
After ming and two years, Chun Xin began to enter the high-yield and peak period of creation. In the same year, With the assistance of engravers and printers, Harunobu Suzuki successfully created the first nishiki-e works using a multi-color overprint method on the basis of red folded colors.
These works are more colorful than the red fold painting, and the dealers likened it to a delicate brocade cloth veil, so the term "nishiki" became a representative of ukiyo-e, which made the traditional woodblock printmaking technique a big step forward.
"See Li Ju Ci Tong" (date unknown)
Harunobu Suzuki's ukiyo-e works have a wide range of themes, among which beauty paintings are famous. The charming soft, sentimental beauty of these young beauties conveys Haruka's subjective ideals, which is why art critics use "dream" to describe their beauty.
This also brought him a greater stylistic distance from other ukiyo-e painters of his time. It can be said that Harumin smoothly incorporated ukiyo-e art into the mainstream of Japanese art.
Umbrella in the snow
Nishiki-e
27.2 cm × 20.2 cm
In 1767
Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
This is a masterpiece by Harunobu Suzuki, and of all the ukiyo-e works depicting couples, this one is the most romantic and melancholy. In this painting, Harunobu also shows his ability to control color: the color contrast of the picture is strong, in the snowy silver world, young men and women walk quietly against the background of the gray sky, the black and white clothes of the two and the yellow of the back of the umbrella, as well as the red of the underwear show a refreshing color contrast, and the color scheme is surprisingly simple and delicate.
The painter borrowed the plot of the two men and women who died in Kabuki to fight the umbrella together, and by depicting two people using their hands to support the umbrella full of snow, the details of the two looking at each other affectionately gave the picture a mournful atmosphere.
Harunobu Suzuki makes use of the empty folding method in his technique, and the snow on the top of the umbrella seems to slightly protrude from the paper, and the white clothes on the woman's body are also covered with exquisite dark lines, although they do not render any color, but the texture of the clothes has jumped out of the paper. The painter himself seems to have a special fondness for this work, and has changed the carving technique to express it many times, according to Japanese scholars, there are at least five versions.
Customs of the Four Seasons Song Immortal Li Chun
27.7 cm × 20.7 cm
In 1768
Library of Congress Collection
The work depicts a young samurai with a sword sitting on the broad edge of a mansion on New Year's Day at the beginning of the new year, when a girl opens the door, the samurai inserts the sword into his belt, looks up at the girl behind the door, and talks to her.
In the clouds above the work is a poem by Fujiwara Tosunari (1114-1204) of the Heian period, to the effect that "spring comes from the sky, and the gates of heaven open...". This is reminiscent of the fact that the girl may have been metaphorically known as the lord of the celestial realm in Japanese legend, Amaterasu Daimyo, who opened the door like a god.
The "snow wheel" pattern on the girl's sleeve is embroidered with plum blossoms, fuzi, calamus and autumn leaves, which also means that the life of the four seasons is endless under the sun. The young samurai on the left also wear hind sleeves, which were not unusual for young and wealthy men to wear those sleeves in the Edo period. The pattern like "bucket" on it has the meaning of "hidden", and the corresponding patterns are like waves, clouds and kasumi, which seems to symbolize that the hidden thing is "moon".
Harushin seems to have compared this samurai to the younger brother of the Amaterasu Daimyo (the god who calculates dates and months). The combination of these two gods is perfect for people to pray in the festive New Year – just as the moon becomes a full moon, people go through hardships and always usher in a new bright year.
Rainy Night Palace
27.7 cm × 20.5 cm
Collection of tokyo national museum
Most of the miritsu-e in ukiyo-e are derived from Chinese and Japanese stories and legends, and are replaced by the social landscape or beauty of the time. The premise of understanding the standing painting is that the viewer must understand these allusions in order to taste the fun and wit of this substitution. Harunobu Suzuki's Mirita-e is extremely literate, and has a unique inspirational transformation and just the right amount of freedom.
This painting of the Rainy Night Palace is based on the ballad (see note below) "Ant Pass" as a prototype allusion, telling the story of the early Heian period Waka Sacred Hand Kinyuki, in the middle of the night heavy rain, passing by the Izumi Kingdom (now Osaka Prefecture) before the ant Tong Ming God, did not get off the horse to perform the ritual and was punished by the gods.
He improvised a harmony song for the gods, calmed the wrath of the gods, and he was able to pass through in peace. The work transforms the story into a young woman walking alone in a stormy night as she passes a red torii gate with a lantern in one hand and an umbrella in the other, the surrounding trees shaking violently and the purple hem of her kimono fluttering.
The pattern on the lantern in her hand shows that she is an Achan of the Kasakamori Inari Tea House in Edo. Harushin compares the signature girl of the Water Tea House to the ant-channeling deity, giving people a taste of Harunobu's ingenuity and wit in this work.
Ballad: Simply put, it is a Japanese "Noh" record book. Noh is an ancient Japanese performing art with a plot, which includes two forms of performance, "Noh" and "Kyogen".