Art History - A4 S2

History Essay 2
Contrasting illustrative art practices from the History of Japan.
  1. The Floating world of Ukiyo-e: woodcuts- subjects and style
  2. Woodcut illustrations from the period after 1852 which show European affects, such as perspectives; European technology and dress.
  3. Two examples of Japonisme in Europe.
  4. Compare and contrast:  Manga Art with Studio Ghibli practice

Research

The floating world of Ukiyo-e 

"Ukiyo-e literally means 'pictures of the floating world'. The 'floating world' referred to the licensed brothel and theatre districts of Japan's major cities during the Edo period. Inhabited by prostitutes and Kabuki actors " (Victoria and Albert Museum, n.d.)

"The ukiyo-e style was developed in 1765 and remained popular until the closing decades of the Meiji period (1868 – 1912). While only the wealthy could afford paintings by the artists of the day, ukiyo-e prints were enjoyed by a wide audience"

"The earliest woodblock prints were simple black and white prints taken from a single block. Sometimes they were coloured by hand, but this process was expensive. In the 1740s, additional woodblocks were used to print the colours pink and green, but it wasn't until 1765 that the technique of using multiple colour woodblocks was perfected. The glorious full-colour prints that resulted were known as nishiki-e or 'brocade pictures'." 

"Ukiyo-e (literally “pictures of the floating world”) is the name given to paintings and prints primarily depicting the transitory world of the licensed pleasure quarters (Yoshiwara), the theater and pleasure quarters of Edo, present-day Tokyo, Japan. It is a composite term of uki(floating), yo (world), and e (pictures). Originally, ukiyo was a Buddhist term to express the impermanence of human life. During the Edo Period (1615–1868), however, ukiyo came to refer to the sensual and hedonistic pleasures of people, who embraced them all the more for their ever-changing nature." (Khan Academy, n.d.)

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ukiyo-e began as hand-painted scrolls and screens of everyday life. Paintings often depicted popular recreations and entertainment, such as street dancing, cherry blossom viewing, and festivals, and beautiful women engaged in leisurely pursuits. Previously, most painters had been commissioned to do religious paintings, illustrations on courtly hand scrolls, or seasonal scenes. In contrast, this new ukiyo-e painting greatly appealed to the chonin—a social class of merchants and craftsmen (literally “residents of the block” or townspeople). In order to meet the increasing demand, ukiyo-e began to be mass-produced using carved wooden blocks at the end of the seventeenth century, due to its greater affordability.



Woodblock printing came to Japan during the eighth century and became the primary method of printing from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries. As in China, the technology was first used to duplicate Buddhist texts and then later, books of Chinese origin. It was not until the 1500s that books originally in Japanese began to be printed. Black and white illustrations were a part of these early texts, to which color was sometimes added by hand, but eventually colored prints developed around 1765 as printing techniques improved. The first colored prints in Japan were original works of art, which soon led to the publishing of the popular, single-sheet ukiyo-e.

The single-sheet prints were mass produced for consumption by the commoner and sold by street vendors and shopkeepers for pennies. As their lives became more comfortable, and they could afford to enjoy more activities, ukiyo-e became the most sought-after art form among the commoners. In attempts to control the conspicuous consumption of the merchant class, the government periodically issued edicts restricting the sizes, themes, and materials of ukiyo-e, and eventually censored the prints after 1799, to ensure subject matters were not immoral or politically subversive.

In this market-driven art form, styles often changed. The earliest prints were black and white, hand coloring being gradually adopted later. As coloring by hand was too time consuming to produce prints in enough quantity to satisfy the public’s growing demand, techniques were developed to block print simple two- or three-color images. By 1765, artists like Harunobu were designing polychrome prints called nishiki-e or “brocade pictures.” The addition of more colors resulted in prints that were more realistic and expressive. Pigments for these prints were water based, vegetable dyes, which produced a soft and subtle range of colors. Artists and printers collaborated to produce ever more subtle effects such as the color nuances of a reflection in water and mirrors, or seeing objects through gauze textiles. A metallic powder called mica was sometimes added to colors to give a shimmering surface. By the time of Hokusai and Hiroshige, ukiyo-e prints were produced with up to twenty different colors, virtually each requiring its own carved block. Artists were constantly trying to outdo one another in their prints, not only with beautiful colors, but also clever compositions."

"During Japan’s Edo period (1615–1868) the phrase "the floating world" (ukiyo) evoked an imagined universe of wit, stylishness, and extravagance—with overtones of naughtiness, hedonism, and transgression. Implicit was a contrast to the humdrum of everyday obligation. The concept of the floating world began in the Japanese heartland, migrated eastward, and came to full flower in Edo (present-day Tokyo), where its main venues were popular Kabuki theaters and red-light districts. Each offered an array of rich sensory experiences to the fraction of the populace able to partake of them directly. The floating world also afforded vicarious pleasure to countless others throughout the Japanese islands, for whom it was experienced second-hand through theater, song, story, gossip, and pictures.


Under Japan’s last ruling military clan, the Tokugawa, the rapid growth of cities gave rise to a lively urban culture. Increasingly literate, wealthy, and sophisticated, the townspeople of Edo became heroes in high-spirited stories made up by their peers. Fashionable and often bawdy, these tales became the basis for a flood of advertisements for the floating world, in the form of inexpensive woodblock prints and guidebooks. Less numerous—but no less important—were paintings of the same subjects catering to wealthier people. Such paintings, which employed costly jewel-like pigments and intensive labor, could be bought ready-made or, more commonly, commissioned by a patron." (Khan Academy, n.d.)

Woodcuts with European effects after 1852

"The first Europeans to arrive in Japan did so by accident rather than design. In 1543 a Portuguese ship was blown off course by a typhoon, shipwrecking the sailors on the island of Tanegashima, off the south-west tip of Japan. Eager to trade with Japan, the Portuguese soon established more formal traffic through the port of Nagasaki, and in 1549 the Jesuit priest Francis Xavier (1506 – 52) arrived in the country to found the first Christian mission.

For the Japanese, any initial feelings of alarm caused by the appearance of the nanban-jin, or 'southern barbarians', as the Portuguese were called, was soon overshadowed by the exotic appeal of these curious visitors. The fascination aroused by the arrival of Europeans is revealed in many aspects of late 16th- and early 17th-century Japanese visual culture, most dramatically in screens that depict the arrival of a Portuguese vessel into a Japanese port. In an example from our collection, the artist has emphasised the strange physical features and seemingly outlandish dress of the Europeans, who are shown with long noses and balloon-like trousers." (Victoria and Albert Museum, n.d.)


Six fold screen depicting arrival of a Portuguese ship (detail), maker unknown, 1600 – 30, Japan. Museum no. 803-1892. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

"Screens such as this were painted, not in Nagasaki, but in Kyoto and as such, they reflected the imagination of the painter rather than a specific reality. The theme of the painting follows traditional Japanese iconography. The Portuguese vessel represents a treasure ship (takarabune) bringing wealth and happiness from overseas, while the Europeans themselves were viewed as almost supernatural beings and the bearers of good fortune. Images of nanban-jin occur on objects such as stirrups, mirrors and flasks used by the ruling elite of Japan. A fashion even developed for dressing up in 'southern barbarian' style." (Victoria and Albert Museum, n.d.)

"The arrival of Christianity also had a profound effect on Japan. The Catholic mission founded by Xavier was one of the most successful in Asia. By the early 1590s there were an estimated 215,000 Japanese Christians. At that time the Imperial Regent of Japan, Toyotomi Hideoshi (1537 – 98), began to sense that an allegiance to God would threaten his own authority and so issued a decree in 1587 expelling all Christians. This edict was never carried out but persecutions and executions of Christians occurred under the later rule of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542 – 1616) and his successors. Following a failed Christian uprising in 1637 – 38, all Japanese Christians were forced to renounce their religion or be executed. From 1639, under the sakoku ('closed country') policy all Portuguese were forbidden from entering the country.

The Portuguese weren't the only Europeans to establish trade in Japan. The first Dutch ship arrived in 1600, and in 1609 the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC) established a trading factory in Hirado. Following the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1639, the Dutch became the only Europeans allowed to remain in Japan. They were forced to move to Dejima, a tiny artificial island in Nagasaki Bay, where they were kept under close scrutiny." (Victoria and Albert Museum, n.d.)

"In 1543, three Portuguese travelers aboard a Chinese ship drifted ashore on Tanegashima, a small island near Kyushu. They were the first Europeans to visit Japan. In 1548, Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, arrived from Goa to introduce Christianity to the Japanese. Thereafter a stream of Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries came to Japan. The Japanese called them nanban (southern barbarians) because they sailed to Japan from the south. Portuguese merchants brought tin, lead, gold, silk, and wool and cotton textiles, among other goods, to Japan, which exported swords, lacquer ware, silk, and silver.


Portuguese trade with Japan prospered until 1641, when Christianity was banned by the Japanese government, and Portuguese traders were replaced by the Dutch, who did not engage in missionary work. The Dutch and Chinese had exclusive trade rights with Japan until 1859, when five nations-the United States, England, France, Russia, and Netherlands began commercial relations with Japan.


The Japanese were fascinated by the Portuguese because of their ships, exotic appearance, costumes, language, and merchandise. They depicted these foreigners in great detail in paintings and screens. This work portrays the arrival of a Portuguese ship at the port of Nagasaki. On the left are the captain and his crew, who have just landed; some cargo is still being unloaded. On the right, they are proceeding to a Christian church. At its entrance, Jesuit priests welcome the party. Some Japanese townsfolk are observing them curiously." 

Japonisme in Europe


"Depicting the world through an alternate lens from the Western Renaissance, the introduction of Japanese art and design to Europe brought about revolutions in composition, palette, and perspectival space. Japonism, also often referred to by the French term, japonisme, refers to the incorporation of either iconography or concepts of Japanese art into European art and design. It is important to note that this integration was often based on European notions of Japanese culture as much as authentic influence. Most of the Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist artists, as well as the members of the Aesthetic movement, were deeply influenced by this new approach to representation."

"Japonism built upon the Orientalist influences that were pervasive in European Neoclassical and Romantic art. The 18th-century aristocratic fashion for chinoiserie, based in imported Chinese art, merged with styles learned from French colonialist expansion in the Middle East and northern Africa. In the first half of the 19th century, artists as varied Eugène Delacroix and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres turned to Orientalist subjects, developing dramatic intensely colored scenes as seen in Delacroix's Death of Sardanapalus (1827) or reconfiguring figurative work with sensual treatments such as Ingres's La Grande Odalisque (1814)."

As Japan began trade with Europe, the aesthetic and philosophies of Japanese design quickly became fashionable.

https://youtu.be/FvDJFxnXlsU
very interesting is about how Monet, van Gogh, and other Western Artists. Which shows how Japanese art has influenced the western cutler, as a large part of Japanese painting is the way they tell stories and the details.

https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-japonism-definition-history.html
"In 1862, the first major public show of Japanese art was hosted in London, called the International Exhibition. People flocked to the show and eagerly marveled at the exotic arts. This fascination compounded at the Exposition Universelle (World Fair) in Paris in 1867. This was the first time that Japan had its own pavilion in a European-based world fair, and it was incredibly popular. By 1872, a French art critic had developed a term for the ever-increasing obsession with Japanese popular arts: Japonisme."


http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/japonism.htm
"The American painter Whistler (1834-1903), one of the earliest devotees of Japonism, was responsible for several Japanese-style paintings, including: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain (1863-65, Peacock Room, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC). He also introduced the Pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti to Japanese art, thus initiating a Japonist cult within this Bohemian circle.

Claude Monet (1840-1926) adopted elements of Japanese painting in both his portraiture and landscapes. In portrait art, for instance, we have his Madame Monet in a Japanese Costume (1875, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston); while his Japonist-style landscape painting is exemplified by Apple Trees in Blossom (1873, Private Collection), with its lightness of touch, and gentle colouring. See also the Japanese-style spindly bushes and asymmetrical composition in The Church and the Seine at Vetheuil (1881, Private Collection). Monet also designed his own Japanese-style water garden at Giverny, where he painted a huge number of aquatic landscapes, including the Japonist Water Lily Pond (1899, Philadelphia Museum of Art), and The Japanese Bridge (1918-24, Musee-Marmottan, Paris).

After attending the major 1890 exhibition of ukiyo-e prints at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, in Paris, the American Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was inspired by the Japanese woodcuts of Utamaro (c.1753–1806), and went on to create a series of ten colour etchings in homage to his works. Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) went one step further and made use of traditional Japanese woodcut techniques both in his Synthetist movement and in individual works like The Vision after the Sermon: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1888, National Galleries of Scotland), which borrowed the design for the wrestlers from the Ukiyo-e master Hokusai.

Japanese art, especially woodblock prints, were a great source of inspiration for Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), who greatly admired the intense colour, bold design, and simple elegant lines. Introduced to ukiyo-e prints at the art gallery owned by his brother Theo, and at the nearby Bing Gallery, Van Gogh made copies of designs by the Ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige, as in his Japonaiserie: Bridge in the Rain (1887, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam). Other works which include motifs taken from Ukiyo-e woodcuts, include his Flowering Plum Tree (1887, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), and The Courtesan (1887, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), the latter based on a print by Keisai Eisen (1790–1848) taken from the cover of the magazine Paris Illustrated. In addition, his Portrait of Pere Tanguy (1887, Musee Rodin, Paris) contains images of six different ukiyo-e as part of the background.

Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) made use of exaggerated colours, contours and facial expressions, used in prints of Kabuki actors, in order to create his eye-catching poster art, while members of Les Nabis such as Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard were inspired by the unusual angles and viewpoints of Ukiyo-e printmakers like Hokusai.

Other modern artists who were influenced by the fashion for Japonism include: Impressionists Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro; printmaker Felix Vallotton, graphic artist Aubrey Beardsley, lithographic poster designer Alphonse Mucha and Viennese Sezessionist Gustave Klimt, as well as architects Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), Edward W.Godwin and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and ceramicists Taxile Doat and Edmond Lachenal. In Scotland, C.R.Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Painting (1880-1915) were strongly influenced by Japonist styles and colours." 

https://www.parkwestgallery.com/west-meets-east-how-japan-inspired-a-western-art-movement/

"When Van Gogh moved to Paris in 1886, he began to explore impressionism and became interested in Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. He even used them to decorate his studio walls. He admired the bold designs and colors while appreciating the elegant and simple lines. Van Gogh began to copy Japanese ukiyo-e artists, adding in new elements and using brighter colors with superior contrasts.


The influence of Japanese prints remained evident in Van Gogh’s works through his strong outlines. His use of black and color contrasts, along with cropped compositions, reflected Japanese culture and tradition.

French artist Edgar Degas embraced the exotic art in a different way. Degas became deeply connected with Japanese sketches, inspired by their linear emphasis, asymmetrical compositions and aerial perspectives. American artist Mary Cassatt, who was considered a pupil of Degas, found new inspiration in depicting women and familial scenes after studying Japanese woodcuts.

Other artists inspired by Eastern art form include: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who implemented exaggerated colors, contours and facial expressions found in the Kabuki theater prints; Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, who both called themselves “prophets” of a new art style and relied upon the unusual viewpoints of the ukiyo-e printmakers; and Paul Gauguin, who bypassed the current practice of lithography and adopted woodcut techniques after being attracted to the art of the Eastern culture." 

Manga Art with Studio Ghibli practice

https://www.kcpinternational.com/2014/05/a-brief-history-of-manga/
"Japanese manga creators conform to a particular style of artwork creation developed in the late 19th century.  The story lines of the comic books tackle a broad range of genres such as action-adventure, romance, comedy, drama, science-fiction, and fantasy"
"Manga refers to cartooning and comics or whimsical sketches"

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/pictures-of-youth-introduction-childrens-visual-culture/0/steps/43937

"Ghibli was founded in 1985, by the directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and the producer Toshio Suzuki. The company’s works – most famously, their anime (or animated) feature films - have trickled across the globe, both with English subtitles and dubbed into languages other than Japanes" (Olive, n.d.)

"Then individual frames and backgrounds are hand-drawn by animators then filmed and edited together with the audio material such as dialogue, sound effects and theme music. CGI (computer generated images) are used only occasionally by Ghibli" (Olive, n.d.)

https://www.acmi.net.au/ideas/read/studio-ghibli-cinema-humanism/

japantimes.co.jp/news/2009/05/26/reference/manga-heart-of-pop-culture/#.XYas6qgzbcc

“Choju-giga” (“Scrolls of Frolicking Animals”), a series of drawings of frogs, rabbits and other animals produced in the 12th and 13th centuries by several artists, is widely believed to be the first manga in Japan. The techniques used then, such as how to draw a character’s legs to simulate running, would not appear out of place in contemporary comics.
But in “Manga no Rekishi” (“The History of Manga”), author and researcher Isao Shimizu defines manga as popular works sold to the masses" (Matsutani, 2009)
https://the-artifice.com/hayao-miyazaki-art-repetition-studio-ghibli/

Within this researching I have found it quite hard to find relevant sources to explain how the two are connected, while also expanding on the relevance of how studio Ghibli's detective style is based upon and developed off Manga. As said before they hand paint their background and then animate over top of them to references what seems to be traditional Japanese storytelling paintings.






(Princess Mononoke, 1997)



(Howl's Moving Castle, 2004)


(Howl's Moving Castle, 2004)

References

Khan Academy. (n.d.). The evolution of ukiyo-e and woodblock prints. [online] Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/art-japan/edo-period/a/the-evolution-of-ukiyo-e-and-woodblock-prints [Accessed 16 Sep. 2019].

Khan Academy. (n.d.). The Floating World of Edo Japan. [online] Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/art-japan/edo-period/a/the-floating-world-of-edo-japan [Accessed 16 Sep. 2019].

Khan Academy. (n.d.). Arrival of a Portuguese ship. [online] Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/art-japan/edo-period/a/arrival-of-a-portuguese-ship [Accessed 16 Sep. 2019].

Matsutani, M. (2009). 'Manga': heart of pop culture | The Japan Times. [online] The Japan Times. Available at: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2009/05/26/reference/manga-heart-of-pop-culture/ [Accessed 21 Sep. 2019].

Olive, D. (n.d.). What is Studio Ghibli? - Pictures of Youth. [online] FutureLearn. Available at: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/pictures-of-youth-introduction-childrens-visual-culture/0/steps/43937 [Accessed 21 Sep. 2019].

Victoria and Albert Museum. (n.d.). V&A · Japan's encounter with Europe, 1573 – 1853. [online] Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/japans-encounter-with-europe-1573-1853 [Accessed 16 Sep. 2019].

Victoria and Albert Museum. (n.d.). V&A · Japanese woodblock prints (ukiyo-e). [online] Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/japanese-woodblock-prints-ukiyo-e [Accessed 16 Sep. 2019]. 


Howl's Moving Castle. (2004). [film] Directed by H. Miyazaki. Japan: Studio Ghibli.
My Neighbor Totoro. (1988). [film] Directed by H. Miyazaki. Japan: Studio Ghibli.

Princess Mononoke. (2019). [film] Directed by H. Miyazaki. Japan: Studio Ghibli.


Visual-arts-cork.com. (n.d.). Japonism (1854-1900). [online] Available at: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/japonism.htm [Accessed 21 Sep. 2019].


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