Visions of the Floating World

Visions of the Floating World
March 27 - May 2, 2010

Utagawa Hiroshige II (Japanese, 1826-69)
Hiroko Road, Shitaya [Shitaya Hirok?-ji] from Thirty-Six Views of the Eastern Capital [Toto sanju rokkei], 1862
Color woodblock print
Fort Wayne Museum of Art
Gift of Mrs. Ora Brant  1965.68

Ukiyo-e, literally meaning pictures from the floating world in Japanese, blossomed in the form of paintings, screens, illustrated books, but especially colorful woodblock prints.  Although the history of Japanese woodblock prints can be traced back to the 8^th century, there was a dramatic rise in Japanese artists who turned to printmaking beginning in the 17^th century.  This led to a greater refinement in technique, including the introduction of full color, and a wider range of subjects.  The fashionable woodblock prints were widely purchased in Japan and later captured the imagination of Western artists after trade opened up between Japan and the West in 1854.

 This exhibition presents the people and places largely from the Edo period 1614-1868, including woodblock prints by artists Kikugawa Eizan, Ando Hiroshige, Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and Kitagawa Utamaro, among others.  The primary inspiration of ukiyo-e was the pleasure district, where one could find kabuki theater, popular restaurants, brothels, and street entertainment. 

 Many artists built their reputations working in a specific genre of prints. Utamaro and Eizan were renowned in bijin-ga, or images of beautiful women: courtesans, geishas, historic and fictional figures, and everyday women.  Regardless of their activity, the women emanate an aura of elegance often reflecting the latest trends in fashion and hairstyles.

 Prints of actors in roles from kabuki plays served as advertisements and souvenirs.  Often times, leading actors posed dramatically at a climactic moment in the play.  Among dramatic subjects depicted in prints were the romantic Tale of Genji written by by Murasaki Shikibu and Chushingura (The Loyal League of Forty-Seven Ronin).

By the middle of the 19^th century artists Katsushika Hokusai and Ando Hiroshige celebrated Japan’s natural landscape and picturesque landmarks as people’s passion for travel swelled.  An edict called for the feudal lords (daimyo) to alternate their time between residences in Edo and home and regular journeys increased.  Daimyo processions and ordinary people used major thoroughfares, such as the T?kaid? Highway, which ran 300 miles along the coast between Edo and Kyoto.

 The European avant-garde became fascinated with the subjects and formal construction of Japanese prints.  In 1890, an exhibition at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris showcased more than 1000 prints and illustrated books from private collections.  Japanese prints depicted scenes from daily life as well as changing seasonal and atmospheric effects on landscapes.  Artists were inspired to adapt a flat use of color and space, strong use of line, and bold often asymmetrical compositions in their own works.  Examples of prints by European and American artists Félix Buhot, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, James McNeill Whistler, Félix Vallotton are featured as well.