Ukiyo - e

[Bryan Stone]

Hi everyone, I've recently done a good deal of research on Ukiyo-e prints for a presentation I did at school focusing on Hokusai because of his use of the term 'Manga' when he printed his sketchbooks in the 1800s. Although my focus was Hokusai I got extemely sidetracked and wound up studing about the orgins of the woodblock print in Japan and many of the other artists. Anyhoo, I'm relatively new to Usagi...that is, I've only been reading for a year or two and while I do have quite a few back issues I've not seen any printmaker characters or prints in stories. Are there any? Or, does the Ukiyo-e woodblock tradition come after Usagi's time period?

[Cosmo]

Mmmh, I think woodblock prints already existed at the time of Usagi, but not as we know them.

First, they were monochrome, and they mainly stood as illustrations for books. Later, during the 17th and 18th centuries, a wealthy and refined urban class emerged : woodblock prints gained popularity, because they could be mass-produced and therefore were affordable.

Their popularity encouraged innovations, like the introduction of full-colour prints around 1750, and ukiyo-e became an art in itself. Note that the word ukiyo-e only appeared in 1681.

So, Usagi could meet a wood engraver, the technique is old enough, but not somebody like Hiroshige or Hokusai, I guess. He'd probably be a good book printer, a skilled artisan more than a full-fledged artist.

[Bryan Stone]

Thanks for the info. I had actually just recently read most of that in various books, the only thing that I would add is that the ukiyo-e prints also served as a type of surveliance (sp?) for those in charge.

But, there's actually more to the story now. As I said before I had done a small bit of research on this for an art history class a year and a half ago and then quite a bit more over the last week and have become increasingly amazed by these artists work especially Hokusai and Suzuki Harunobu. So this morning I was talking to my wife about it before we went over to Lebanon, NH to meet with the President of the community college there about a craft market at which we're going to have a booth. We walked into his office and I noticed a beautiful Japanese wall-scroll, my wife told me to look behind me and there was an original Hokusai! It was the 'Red Fuji' (not the proper name I think...but that'w what was written on the matt...he must have had it framed and matted) print from the 36 views of Mt. Fuji series!!!! I couldn't believe it! Come to find out the guy had taught business classes in Japan and one of his students was Hokusai's granddaughter! Isn't that crazy!

[Tounian]

I'm glad to see another fan of Ukiyo E woodblocks. I think you should check out the work of Yoshitoshi, Kuniyoshi, and Katsuakwa Shunsho, if you can find some. Shunsho is my hero, as I have one of his pieces on my leg.