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The Making A Mark Japanese Art project

Making a Mark: The influence of Japanese Art: There's something about Japanese Art which draws me in. I'm not sure quite what it is however I'm very sure that learning more about it will help me with the development of my own drawings and artwork. It had a significant impact on the artists who I studied last year so I feel that being open to its influence can only be beneficial.

I'm going to look first at resources and then at how I might usefully frame my approach to this project.
Making a Mark: The concepts and characteristics of ukiyo-e: This week, I'm going to try and summarise what seem to be the subjects and characteristics of the Japanese wood block print - ukiyo-e.

I'm going to move from overview through to detail as I work through this project so I'm starting with the big picture.

* First (today) I'm going to attempt an overview of the subject matter.
* Then I'm going to use the western conventions of elements and principles of composition to organise new information so that hopefully it makes more sense to me within a more familiar context.
Making a Mark: The elements of ukiyo-e: This post aims to provide an overview of the different elements of design used in a Japanese wood block print - ukiyo-e. For an explanation of the elements of design see this post - Composition - The Elements of Design
Making a Mark: Principles of design and composition and ukiyo-e: My intention was to do an overview about the principles informing the design of Japanese art and prints - but I'm overwhelmed and becoming aware of how absorbing this project might become!

My new aim is to set down some initial impressions - and I'll revisit this topic again towards the end of this project.

I'm also trying to relate a Japanese way of making pictures to western concepts of what's important in terms of Principles of Design (as discussed in the last project) Again this is more about me finding a way to understand what's going on initially rather than saying the western way of looking at things is best. As we'll see as this project progresses, there's an awful lot of western art which adopted conventions which originated in the East.
Making a Mark: A fish for Good Friday: I came across this fish in a book I bought last Friday. It's called Japonisme - Cultural Crossings between Japan and the West, Lionel Lambourne, Phaidon Press. Lionel Lambourne OBE is the former Head of Paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum (1986-1993) and a curator.
Making a Mark: The Visual Translation of Japan in Late 19th-Century Paris: Japonism is the term used for the influence of Japanese art in the west. This post is part of my Japanese Art project and is a combination of my own initial research on this topic and notes I made at a seminar I attended at the National Gallery in February called Gained in Translation: The Visual Translation of Japan in Late 19th-Century Paris - given by Karly Allen.

..............Whistler, Tissot, Monet, Manet and Degas were all buying up Japanese prints. Comparisons were made with the great artists of the western traditions of printing eg Durer. Europeans were 'discovering' Japanese art - which of course already existed even if the western world didn't know about it! Many of the artists developed very significant collections of Japanese Art
Making a Mark: Japanese Art and ukiyo-e: How do you make a wood block print?: This blog post is part of my project on Japanese Art (see other posts) and is concerned with how Japanese wood block prints associated with ukiyo-e were made. It contains an overview of what they are and how the prints were made and provides links to further information.
Making a Mark: Japanese Art - drawing the Chokushi Mon in Kew Gardens #1: We visited the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew this week and I attempted to draw the Japanese Gateway (the Chokushi-Mon) while at the same time trying to remember all the things I'd been learning as part of my Japanese Art Project. This post is about I designed my sketch and the things I now need to do to translate it into a more formal drawing.
Making a Mark: The Art of Hiroshige: Throughout my Japanese Art project, I've become more and more aware that Hiroshige produced some really stunning woodblock prints and excelled at landscapes. So for my last post of April I'm going to focus on Ando Hiroshige aka Utagawa Hiroshige.

Japanese Art and Artists on Wikipedia

Utamaro - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Kitagawa Utamaro, Kitagawa Utamaro?) (ca. 1753 - 1806) (his name was archaically romanized as Outamaro) was a Japanese printmaker and painter, and is considered one of the greatest artists of woodblock prints (ukiyo-e). He is known especially for his masterfully composed studies of women, known as bijinga. He also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects.

His work reached Europe in the mid 19th century, where it was very popular, enjoying particular acclaim in France. He influenced the European Impressionists, particularly with his use of partial views, with an emphasis on light and shade.
Hokusai - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Katsushika Hokusai, (1760-1849[1]), was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period . In his time he was Japan's leading expert on Chinese painting.[2] Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best-known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, (c. 1831), which includes the iconic and internationally-recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa (created during the 1820s).
Hiroshige - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Legend has it that Hiroshige determined to become a ukiyo-e artist when he saw the prints of his near-contemporary, Hokusai. (Hokusai published some of his greatest prints, such as Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji, in 1832 - the year Hiroshige devoted himself full-time to his art.) From then to Hokusai's death in 1849, their landscape works competed for the same customers.
Ukiyo-e - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Ukiyo-e, "pictures of the floating world", is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints (or woodcuts) and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan.
Edo period - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: The Edo period (Edo-jidai?), also called Tokugawa period (Tokugawa-jidai), is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period ended with the Meiji Restoration, the restoration of imperial rule by the 15th and last shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The Edo period is also known as the beginning of the early modern period of Japan.
Kano school - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: The Kano school is one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting.

Kano ink painters composed very flat pictures but they balanced impeccably detailed realistic depictions of animals and other subjects in the foreground with abstract, often entirely blank, clouds and other background elements. The use of negative space to indicate distance, and to imply mist, clouds, sky or sea is drawn from traditional Chinese modes and is used beautifully by the Kan%u014D artists.

The History of Japanese Art

Japanese Art | Thematic Essays | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A number of thematic essays on Japanese Art including:
- Muromachi Period (1392-1573)
- Momoyama Period (1578-1615)
- Art of the Edo Period (1615-1868)
- Japonisme
- The Kano School of Painting
Muromachi Period (1392–1573) | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: While tea drinking had been brought to Japan from China in earlier centuries, in the fifteenth century, a small coterie of highly cultivated men, influenced by Zen ideals, developed the basic principles of the tea (chanoyu) aesthetic. At its highest level, chanoyu involves an appreciation of garden design, architecture, interior design, calligraphy, painting, flower arranging, the decorative arts, and the preparation and service of food.
The Kano School of Painting | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Kano school was the longest lived and most influential school of painting in Japanese history; its more than 300-year prominence is unique in world art history. Working from the fifteenth century into modern times, this hereditary assemblage of professional, secular painters succeeded in attracting numerous patrons from most affluent social classes by developing, mastering, and promoting a broad range of painting styles, pictorial themes, and formats.

Kano Masanobu (1434-1530) is credited with establishing the Kano school as a professional atelier in Kyoto. Although not himself a Zen adherent, Masanobu was closely associated with influential Zen temples and adopted the Chinese painting style that they favored.
Momoyama Period (1573–1615) | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The decorative style that is the hallmark of Momoyama art had its inception in the early sixteenth century and lasted well into the seventeenth. On the one hand, the art of this period was characterized by a robust, opulent, and dynamic style, with gold lavishly applied to architecture, furnishings, paintings, and garments. The ostentatiously decorated fortresses built by the daimyo for protection and to flaunt their newly acquired power exemplified this grandeur. On the other hand, the military elite also supported a counter-aesthetic of rustic simplicity, most fully expressed in the form of the tea ceremony that favored weathered, unpretentious, and imperfect settings and utensils.
Art of the Edo Period (1615–1868) | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: In the harshly controlled feudal society governed for over 250 years by the descendants of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616), creativity came not from its leaders, a conservative military class, but from the two lower classes in the Confucian social hierarchy, the artisans and merchants.
Art of the Pleasure Quarters and the Ukiyo-e Style | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: While the military class continued to play an important role as art patrons, the pleasure quarters and the sophisticated entertainments they offered exerted an enormous impact on the culture of the Edo period. Celebrations of the exploits of the women, actors, and visitors of these districts provided the subject matter of the highly popular ukiyo zoshi novellas and ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints. The word ukiyo originally expressed the Buddhist idea of the transitory nature of life. This rather pessimistic notion was overturned during the Edo period. The character meaning "to float" was substituted for the homonym meaning "transitory" to express an attitude of joie de vivre. This hedonistic culture that glorified life in the "floating world" was particularly well expressed in the production of woodblock prints, which made available to anyone with a bit of extra cash captivating images of seductive courtesans, exciting kabuki actors, and famous romantic vistas. For the first time, artists were inspired by and responded to the interests and preferences of the general public.
Painting Formats in East Asian Art | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: ....during the last two millennia, a variety of distinctive portable formats for viewing and storing paintings and calligraphy were developed and are common, with certain nuances, to all three countries of China, Korea, and Japan.
Seasonal Imagery in Japanese Art | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: From ancient times to the present, the Japanese people have celebrated the beauty of the seasons and the poignancy of their inevitable evanescence through the many festivals and rituals that fill their year?from the welcoming of spring at the lunar New Year to picnics under the blossoming cherry trees to offerings made to the harvest moon.
World Images - Japanese Graphics: Images from 1185 onwards

Ukiyo-e and woodblock printing in the Edo and Meiji Periods

The Edo period lasts from 1620s until about 1867; the Meiji period starts in 1867 and lasts until 1912.

Woodblock Prints in the Ukiyo-e Style | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Woodblock prints of the Edo period most frequently depicted the seductive courtesans and exciting kabuki actors (JP2822) of the urban pleasure districts. With time, their subject matter expanded to include famous romantic vistas and eventually, in the final years of the nineteenth century, dramatic historical events. These pictures could be made in great quantity and featured popular scenes that appealed in particular to the wealthy townspeople of the period.
Hill-Stead: Japanese wood block prints: Japanese Color Woodblock Prints

Hill-Stead's collection of color woodblock prints showcases particularly choice images, including works by Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige and Kitagawa Utamaro. The woodblock print took hold in Japan in the 16th century during a period of rapid urbanization when book publication began to flourish. As printed images became more colorful and complex, publishers realized that they could market these images independently. This genre of artwork later inspired the French Impressionist painters.
The Floating World of Ukiyo-E (Library of Congress Exhibition): The Floating World of Ukiyo-e: Shadows, Dreams, and Substance (A Library of Congress Exhibition

This exhibition showcases the Library's spectacular holdings of Japanese prints, books, and drawings from the 17th to the 19th centuries. These works are complemented by related works from the Library's collections created by Japanese and Westerns artists into the 20th century.
The Bitter End / Art of the Edo Period: During the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), the shogun required that the daimyo (lords) and their samurai spend time in Edo (now Tokyo) during alternate years. As a result, a large recreation and entertainment industry grew in Edo, serving first the daimyo and their samurai, and later the growing populace of Edo itself. This industry was referred to as ukiyo --- the floating world.

Ukiyo-e, images of the "floating world" (everyday life), are the woodblock prints of old Edo. Ukiyo-e are the images of the floating world and of the pleasures therein. Typical subjects include pictures of bijin (beautiful women), kacho (birds and flowers), the kabuki theater, sumo, meisho (famous views), and scenes from history and myth as well as abuna-e and shunga (erotica).
JAANUS (Japanese Architecture and art Net Users System) / ukiyo-e: ukiyo-e - art history / paintings @ Lit. pictures of the floating world. Paintings and woodblock prints of genre themes developed from late 17c to late 19c (mid-Edo to early Meiji periods)
Hiroshige Website - Stewart Guide to Japanese Prints: Basil Stewart's book, 'A Guide to Japanese Prints and Their Subject Matter', was first published by E. P. Dutton and Company, New York in 1922 with the title 'Subjects Portrayed in Japanese Colour Prints'. It was reprinted as an unabridged edition by Dover Publications of New York in 1979.
A large proportion of the book deals with Hiroshige
Hiroshige - Stewart Guide to Japanese Prints: ANDO HIROSHIGE
A GUIDE TO JAPANESE PRINTS - BASIL STEWART APPENDIX III
LIST OF UKIYOYE ARTISTS
ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY
MIA - Arts of Japan - Exhibition preview - Pleasures and Pastimes - Images from the Floating World: Arts of Japan: the John C. Weber Colection Exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts from February 24th through May 25th, 2008 in the Target Gallery. Approximately 75 works of art from the collection of John C. Weber, spanning major aesthetic trends in Japanese art from the 12th to 20th centur
Viewing Japanese Prints: FAQ - making Japanese prints: Viewing Japanese Prints by John Fiorillo: Illustrated Essays on Japanese Prints (ukiyo-e,sosaku hanga, shin hanga, and modern Japanese prints).

BOOKS: Ukiyo-e

books on Amazon

BOOKS: Japanese prints

books on Amazon

Japanese Artists - Resources for Art Lovers

Japanese Art in Museums and Art Galleries

MFA Boston: Japanese Art: The MFA is home to one of the finest and largest collections of Japanese art outside Japan. Now numbering over 100,000 objects, it was mostly formed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by a group of far-sighted Bostonians who traveled to Japan

Around 80 percent of the Japanese art in the MFA is made up of Japanese woodblock prints and books, including works acquired in Japan in the late nineteenth century
MFA Boston: Japanese Painting: Including over three thousand works, chiefly acquired by Ernest Fenollosa and William Sturgis Bigelow, the collection is known for select ink paintings dating to the fifteenth century by artists associated with Zen monasteries, comprehensive holdings of Kano-school and Ukiyo-e painting
MFA Boston: Japanese Prints: The MFA collection of Japanese prints is the largest and finest outside Japan. Made from the late seventeenth century to the beginning of the twentieth, Ukiyo-e prints document the urban popular culture of the early modern period and, later, the rapid industrialization of the Meiji era (1868-1912). In addition to Ukiyo-e prints, the collection is also rich in early Buddhist prints and works by modern and contemporary artists.
MFA Boston: Japanese Postcards: The postcard became a primary graphic art form in early twentieth-century Japan. The recent gift of Leonard A. Lauder's collection of over 20,000 Japanese postcards from the period 1900-1940 has dramatically extended the museum's collection of Japanese printed art.

NEW! Interactive tour of Japanese Postcards
MIA - Arts of Japan - About the Exhibition: Arts of Japan: the John C. Weber Colection Exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts from February 24th through May 25th, 2008 in the Target Gallery. Approximately 75 works of art from the collection of John C. Weber, spanning major aesthetic trends in Japanese art from the 12th to 20th centur
PARIS AUCTIONS : Opening a time capsule of Japanese woodcuts - International Herald Tribune: It is the year's bombshell on the Far Eastern art front. On Nov. 27, the most extraordinary sale of Japanese woodcuts in the last quarter of a century is to be held at Sotheby's Paris. Two hundred and seventy-six prints, books and drawings by printmakers collected by a world-renowned connoisseur dealer, Huguette Beres, will be dispersed. The most important collection anywhere still in private hands (including Japan, specialists believe), the Beres collection rivals in quality those of the world's great museums.
TOKYO NATIONAL MUSEUM Scheduled Exhibitions: Scheduled Exhibitions
Tokyo National Museum Special Exhibitions 2008
NYPL Digital Gallery | The Floating World: Japanese Color Woodcuts by Kitagawa Utamaro: The Floating World: Japanese Color Woodcuts by Kitagawa Utamaro

Original prints by the Japanese painter and woodcut designer Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806).
NYPL Digital Gallery | Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan: Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan

More than 1,000 images encompassing 1,200 years of Japanese book art, including Buddhist sutras, painted manuscripts, portraits, landscapes, calligraphic verse, and photographic books, with related drawings and woodblock prints.
MAKING A MARK: Art Museums in Japan: In writing for this blog, I've developed an interest in art museums across the world - both in terms of their art collections and their exhibitions. This post:
- focuses on art museums in Japan
- identifies the top museums
- lists some of the museums of note - and why they are noteworthy
- ruminates on the implications of the recent catastrophes for art in Japan

BOOKS: Japanese prints in exhibitions, galleries and museums

books on Amazon

Books produced by galleries and museums about their collections

Exhibitions of Japanese Art

24 Hour Museum : Japanese Art Prints From The Edo Period At Gosport Gallery: Japan: A Floating World in Print runs from July 14 to September 1 2007 and is a rare opportunity to see the work of four of the main masters of Ukiyo-e prints displayed together in Hampshire for the first time.
National Gallery of Art - Edo (News Release): Past Exhibition Release Date: 1998
First Major U.S. Survey of Edo Art from Japan, Only at the National
Gallery of Art in Washington

Provides an overview of art in the Edo Period
Nature of the Beast [Pacific Asia Museum]: Nature of the Beast: Animals in Japanese Paintings and Prints from Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California: A web experience for students, teachers, and families that explores the way artists in Japan have looked at animals and nature. Includes more than 40 art images, games, and lesson plans.
The Floating World of Ukiyo-E (Library of Congress Exhibition): The Floating World of Ukiyo-e: Shadows, Dreams, and Substance (A Library of Congress Exhibition
Japanese Paintings and Prints [Pacific Asia Museum]: Nature of the Beast: Animals in Japanese Paintings and Prints from Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California

Essay 1: TRADITION: The way we have always done things.

Artworks of animals mirror humans and the heavens.
Japanese Paintings and Prints [Pacific Asia Museum]: Nature of the Beast: Animals in Japanese Paintings and Prints from Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California

Essay 2 REALITY:The way things really are.
Finding the inner animal.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: - Drame and desire - Japanese Paintings from the Floating World 1690-1850: Drama and Desire: Japanese Paintings from the Floating World 1690-1850
August 28, 2007 - December 16, 2007

With the establishment of Edo (modern-day Tokyo) as the major political and commercial center of Japan in the seventeenth century, artists developed a new imagery, known as ukiyo-e. Masters of the genre explored the daily activities of the city's inhabitants and detailed the stylish preoccupations of the "Floating World"-the theaters and the brothels. While many of these artists, such as Harunobu, Utamaro, and Hokusai, are well-known in the West for their woodblock prints, it was in the medium of painting that they actually received their major commissions.

The Japanese press has hailed the Museum's collection of more than 700 ukiyo-e paintings as the finest anywhere in the world. Despite the collection's acclaim, "Drama and Desire: Japanese Paintings from the Floating World 1690-1850" marks the first exhibition highlighting the Museum's holdings of these works.
The Ashmolean - Museum of Art & Archaeology: From Japanese beauties to decorative kimonos and flowers of the seasons, this exhibition of colourful woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) from the Edo period (16031868) reflected more than one hundred years of Japanese taste and cultural respect for the seasons.
The Ashmolean - Museum of Art & Archaeology: Ashmolean Exhibition: Legend and Landscape: Japanese Paintings
Kuniyoshi - Exhibitions - Royal Academy of Arts: Kuniyoshi - From the Arthur R. Miller Collection
21 March-7 June 2009

The Royal Academy of Arts presents an exhibition on one of the greatest Japanese print artists, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861). Featuring over 150 works, the exhibition presents Kuniyoshi as a master of imaginative design. It reveals the graphic power and beauty of his prints across an unprecedented range of subjects highlighting his ingenious use of the triptych format.
Hymn to beauty: the art of Utamaro : Art Gallery of New South Wales: Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) revolutionised the way women were portrayed in Japanese visual arts, and his sensuous, insightful portraits of courtesans, housewives, mothers and lovers have enjoyed unabated popularity ever since.

Featuring around 80 prints from the renowned collection of the Asian Art Museum, National Museums in Berlin, this exhibition is the first extensive survey of Utamaro's work in Australia and also includes work by his contemporaries and followers.
Japanese Wave - What's on - Laing Art Gallery, Tyne & Wear Museums: 01 May - 05 Sep 2010
Highlights from Laing's collection of Japanese prints and artefacts will be on show in a new exhibition called Japanese Wave. It will be the first time many of the items have been on show to the public for almost a decade.
Japan Society Gallery to Show Utagawa Kuniyoshi the Forerunner to Today's Manga Artists | Art Knowledge News: Thrashing sea creatures, samurai warriors, and a giant, looming skeleton are among the distinguishing subjects of the brashest of Japan's Ukiyo-e masters, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, whose populist oeuvre is to be presented by Japan Society Gallery from March 12 to June 13, 2010.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Exhibition - Heaven and Hell in Japanese Art: Heaven and Hell in Japanese Art : Saturday, August 14, 2010 - Sunday, May 1, 2011
"Heaven and Hell in Japanese Art" features several Edo-period (1615-1868) Buddhist paintings that have rarely been exhibited.
Metropolitan Museum of Art | A Sensitivity to the Seasons - Summer and Autumn in Japanese Art: June 24-October 23, 2011
This installation of paintings, screens, and objects in the Arts of Japan galleries reflects the keen attentiveness to seasonal change evident in Japanese art.

BOOKS: Kuniyoshi

books on Amazon

Japanese Art and Artists - online galleries

Virtual Gallery dedicated to Japanese Woodblock prints (Ukiyo-e and Shin Hanga): This page presents a collection of Japanese Prints: Ukiyo-e and Shin Hanga, with some additional information on this art and its artists, and an on-line shop
Ukiyo-e - Images from the Floating World: Ukiyo-e - Images from the Floating World: List of artists and index to where their art can be viewed at art museums worldwide.
Hishikawa Moronobu Online: Hishikawa Moronobu [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker and Painter, 1618-1694] Guide to pictures of works by Hishikawa Moronobu in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Kiyonobu Online: Kiyonobu [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1664-1729] Guide to pictures of works by Kiyonobu in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Sukenobu Online: Sukenobu [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1671-1751] Guide to pictures of works by Sukenobu in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Okumura Masanobu Online: Okumura Masanobu [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, ca.1686-1764] Guide to pictures of works by Okumura Masanobu in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Torii Kiyomasu Online: Torii Kiyomasu [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, active 1697-1722] Guide to pictures of works by Torii Kiyomasu in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Nishimura Shigenaga Online: Nishimura Shigenaga [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1697-1756] Guide to pictures of works by Nishimura Shigenaga in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Kaigetsudo Dohan Online: Kaigetsudo Dohan [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, active 1710-1720] Guide to pictures of works by Kaigetsudo Dohan in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Harunobu Online: Harunobu [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, ca.1724-1770] Guide to pictures of works by Harunobu in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Torii Kiyomitsu Online: Torii Kiyomitsu [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1735-1785] Guide to pictures of works by Torii Kiyomitsu in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Kabukido Enkyo Online: Kabukido Enkyo [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1749-1803] Guide to pictures of works by Kabukido Enkyo in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Kabukido Enkyo Online: Kabukido Enkyo [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1749-1803] Guide to pictures of works by Kabukido Enkyo in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Kiyonaga Online: Kiyonaga [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1752-1815] Guide to pictures of works by Kiyonaga in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Kitagawa Utamaro Online: Kitagawa Utamaro [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1754-1806] Guide to pictures of works by Kitagawa Utamaro in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Chobunsai Eishi Online: Chobunsai Eishi [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1756-1829] Guide to pictures of works by Chobunsai Eishi in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Torii Kiyotsune Online: Torii Kiyotsune [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, active ca.1757-1780] Guide to pictures of works by Torii Kiyotsune in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Katsukawa Shun'ei Online: Katsukawa Shun'ei [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1762-1819] Guide to pictures of works by Katsukawa Shun'ei in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Katsukawa Shunsen Online: Katsukawa Shunsen [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, ca.1762-1830] Guide to pictures of works by Katsukawa Shunsen in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Toyokuni Online: Toyokuni [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1769-1825] Guide to pictures of works by Toyokuni in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Toshusai Sharaku Online: Toshusai Sharaku [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1770-1825] Guide to pictures of works by Toshusai Sharaku in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Kunimasa Online: Kunimasa [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1773-1810] Guide to pictures of works by Kunimasa in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Kunimasa Online: Kunimasa [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, 1773-1810] Guide to pictures of works by Kunimasa in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
Utagawa Toyokuni II Online: Utagawa Toyokuni II [Japanese Ukiyo-e Printmaker, ca.1777-1835] Guide to pictures of works by Utagawa Toyokuni II in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.

Technical aspects of Japanese Art

This module concerns itself with those aspects which differentiate and characterise Japanese Art

Hiroshige - Stewart Guide to Japanese Prints: ANDO HIROSHIGE
A GUIDE TO JAPANESE PRINTS - BASIL STEWART CHAPTER VIII
CHARACTERISTICS OF JAPANESE DRAWING
IN order to understand better Japanese pictorial art, it is necessary to approach it from a different standpoint to that adopted when criticizing Western art, and to make allowances for the limitations imposed upon it by their canons of drawing and the medium of expression employed. It should be recognized as a purely local product, unique in itself, and cannot fairly be judged by the highly cultivated and, it must be admitted, highly artificial work of European artists.

Thus Japanese painting, like its parent Chinese painting, when not showing traces of European influence, is in two dimensions only, that is, it confines itself to representation in one plane, the idea of space not being indicated by strict perspective, as with us, but if shown at all, by one scene behind or above the other......
Woodblock printing in Japan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Woodblock printing in Japan
Ukiyo'e caricatures - Picture categories: Picture Categories Deutsch | ú{ê | English awatefe (hysteria-pictures)
Seasonal Imagery in Japanese Art | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Artists in Japan created meditations on the fleeting seasons of life and, through them, expressed essential truths about the nature of human experience.

BOOKS: Hokusai

books on Amazon

Landscape art in Japan

British Museum: 100 views of Mount Fuji - a selection: The exhibition 100 Views of Mount Fuji (11 May - 29 July 2001) explored a wide range of manifestations of the mountain in Japanese art, as portrayed in 100 works by painters and print designers from the seventeenth century to the present, including Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Munakata Shik? (1903-75) and Hagiwara Hideo (born 1913)
Hokusai: 36 Views of Mount Fuji: The series titled Fugaku Sanju Rokkei (Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji) is undoubtedly the better known work by Hokusai and of all Japanese woodblock print. The re-edition presented here was published by Tamamizawa,in the twentieth century.

Figurative Art

Hiroshige - Stewart Guide to Japanese Prints: ANDO HIROSHIGE
A GUIDE TO JAPANESE PRINTS - BASIL STEWART CHAPTER XX
FIGURE STUDIES: COURTESANS AND GEISHA
The Yoshiwara - Utamaro as the Painter of Women - Famous Figure-painters of Ukiyoye.

THE majority of designs in figure-studies, either full-length or head and shoulders, are portraits of the inmates of the licensed quarter of Yedo, called the Yoshiwara, a name also applied to the similar districts of other large towns, such as Kyoto and Osaka.

The gorgeous apparel and elaborate coiffure adopted by the beauty of the "green-houses" appealed strongly to the colour-print artist in search of material for his brushes.

Apart from such purely artistic reasons, there was also a personal motive to account for the popularity of the courtesan. To understand the cause of this, we must first put behind us all preconceived ideas as to what the term courtesan usually implies.

BOOKS: Hiroshige

books on Amazon

Kabuki Theatre prints

Japan Society, New York - Kunisada's Theater Prints: The theater prints of ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kunisada (1786 - 1865).

Animals and fish

hanga gallery: Carp and Other Fish (20th century): Carp and Other Fish
The sinuous curve of fish in motion has been the inspiration for many Japanese prints and paintings. Carp and koi, with their vibrant colors and distinctive shape, are particularly popular subject matter.

Japanese Artists

hanga gallery: Watanabe Seitei: Watanabe Seitei is best known for his paintings and prints of birds and flowers, or kacho-e. Born with the name Yoshikawa Yoshimata, Seitei trained with the historical genre painter, Kikuchi Yosai.
Ukiyo'e caricatures - Artists: Artists Deutsch | ú{ê | English
Utagawa Kuniyoshi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese: %u6B4C%u5DDD%u56FD%u82B3) (ca. 1797 - April 14, 1861) was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting and belonged to the Utagawa school.
Category:Utagawa Kuniyoshi - Wikimedia Commons: Images of work by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798 - 1861)
From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository

The Impact of Japanese Art on Western Art and Artists

Japonisme | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: After Japanese ports reopened to trade with the West in 1854, a tidal wave of foreign imports flooded European shores. On the crest of that wave were woodcut prints by masters of the ukiyo-e school which transformed Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art by demonstrating that simple, transitory, everyday subjects from "the floating world" could be presented in appealingly decorative ways.

Parisians saw their first formal exhibition of Japanese arts and crafts when Japan took a pavilion at the World's Fair of 1867. But already, shiploads of oriental bric-a-brac-including fans, kimonos, lacquers, bronzes, and silks-had begun pouring into England and France.
Edgar Degas (1834-1917): Painting and Drawing | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Japanese Art influenced Degas subject matter and composition of his artwork
Art In Japan: Unique 'Degas and the Art of Japan' Exhibition in Final Month at Reading Public Museum: The works of Edgar Degas were deeply influenced by Japanese art, yet surprisingly, there has never been an exhibition devoted to this subject...until now. Degas and the Art of Japan at the Reading Public Museum, on display now through Sunday, December 30, 2007, is the first exhibition of its kind to bring together a variety of works by Degas with an illuminating selection of Japanese objects, including a work actually owned by Degas and many images he knew and admired.
Claude Monet (1840-1926) | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Monet's quest to capture nature more accurately prompted him to reject European conventions governing composition, color, and perspective.

Influenced by Japanese woodblock prints, Monet's asymmetrical arrangements of forms emphasized their two-dimensional surfaces by eliminating linear perspective and abandoning three-dimensional modeling. He brought a vibrant brightness to his works by using unmediated colors, adding a range of tones to his shadows, and preparing canvases with light-colored primers instead of the dark grounds used in traditional landscape paintings.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The composition and calligraphic handling of The Flowering Orchard (56.13) suggest the influence of Japanese prints, which Van Gogh collected. The artist's debt to ukiyo-e prints is also apparent in the reed pen drawings he made in Arles, distinguished by their great verve and linear invention. I
The Metropolitan Museum of Art - n Line with Van Gogh (2006): Like many of his contemporaries, Van Gogh was fascinated with the pictorial novelty of Japanese ukiyo-e prints, which flooded Europe after trade routes were reopened in the 1850s. He collected them avidly and tacked them up on the walls of his studio in Antwerp. In Paris, as the collection of prints he and his brother amassed grew into the hundreds, Van Gogh organized an exhibition of them at the Café Le Tambourin and even copied works by Kesai Eisen and Utagawa Hiroshige in several of his paintings. He must have leafed many times through his volumes of Katsushika Hokusai's One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, like the set on view. The full extent of ukiyo-e's influence on Van Gogh did not become clear until he took up drawing in earnest in Provence. Brandishing a fresh supply of locally cut reed pens, the artist seized upon an ingenious graphic vocabulary inspired by the flattened space and abbreviated calligraphy of the Japanese as embodied in the prints by Hiroshige and Hokusai on view in the exhibition.
The Print in the Nineteenth Century | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Many Impressionists and Post-Impressionists felt the impact of exotic prints that arrived in Europe from Japan after trade routes were reestablished in 1854. The techniques, compositions, and day-to-day subjects characteristic of ukiyo-e woodcuts figure in the color drypoints of Mary Cassatt (16.2.5), the Philadelphian who made her home in Paris, and in the carved block prints of Paul Gauguin (36.6.4) the Parisian who sailed the South Seas.
The Nabis and Decorative Painting | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Nabis rejected the Renaissance ideal of easel painting as a window onto a fictional world. Disavowing illusions of depth, they abandoned both linear perspective and modeling. Like many of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, they were inspired by the broad planes of unmediated color, thick outlines, and bold patterns that characterize Japanese prints. Unlike prints, however, Nabi paintings often feature textured surfaces created by varied brushstrokes. In the words of Maurice Denis, the results remind us that painting "is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order."
Art | Degas and the East | Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/14/2007: DeVonyar and Kendall proceeded from the premise that Degas admired Japanese prints - he owned many - and adapted some of their compositional devices.

They emphasize a conjunction that's obvious when you see his images and those of such Japanese masters as Hiroshige and Utamaro juxtaposed, as they are here. Degas and Japanese artists were interested in similar subjects, most involving women (dancers, laundresses), various aspects of the theater (cafe concerts, Kabuki), and women bathing or dressing their hair.

Throughout the exhibition's seven thematic sections, works by Degas and various Japanese artists are displayed side by side, or in close proximity. The contributions from each side aren't equivalent, though; there are roughly twice as many Japanese prints as there are prints, drawings and paintings by Degas. Nor does the show attempt to demonstrate conclusively that any single work by him derived directly from a particular Japanese print, which would be difficult to achieve.

Nevertheless, as one proceeds through the various sections, consonances become both unmistakable and sometimes striking. Degas didn't borrow themes from the Japanese; that part of the equation is coincidence. But he seems to have responded to the way Japanese artists organized space, how they placed figures, and how they created visual energy through unusual perspectives and unorthodox cropping of figures.
La fondation Claude Monet à Giverny: The Japanese Prints

More about the artists influenced by Japanese Art

BOOKS: Japonisme

books on Amazon

BOOKS: The Influence of Japanese Art on western art

books on Amazon

Japanese Art Appreciation Societies

Japanese Art Society of America, Inc. (formerly The Ukiyo-e Society of America) ::: The Japanese Art Society of America promotes the study and appreciation of Japanese art. Founded in 1973 as the Ukiyo-e Society of America by collectors of Japanese prints, the Society's mission has expanded to include related fields of Japanese art.

Through its annual series of lectures, seminars and other events, the Society provides a dynamic forum in which members can exchange ideas and experiences with experts about traditional and contemporary arts of Japan.

Japanese Art and the Art Economy

The Hidden Strength Of Japanese Art - Forbes.com: The 1990 correction gave birth to a market based on value.

VIDEOS - New YouTube vids

Ukiyo-E slideshow: by Arneneithel | video info

284 ratings | 100,067 views

curated content from YouTube

Twentieth Century Japanese Art

hanga gallery: The Hanga Gallery, located in Durham, North Carolina, specializes in Japanese woodblock prints of the 20th century as well as selected modern printmakers.Our partner, the Torii Gallery, located in Bethesda, Maryland, deals in Japanese woodblock prints, ranging from ukiyo-e and shin hanga to contemporary prints

Buy Japanese Prints

Japanese Prints -- Prints -- V&A Prints: View and buy Japanese Prints from the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Making A Mark

Katherine Tyrrell writing about: - Making marks with pastels, pencils and pen and ink - Creating new drawings and paintings - Influences on developing both artwork and art careers - Interviews with artists - Information about resources for artists and art lovers ....and best viewed in Firefox

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jadehorseshoe Dec 26, 2011 @ 8:41 pm | delete

An Encyclopedia! Fabulous.

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ForestBear Jun 25, 2011 @ 2:51 am | delete

great list, thank you for sharing.

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JaguarJulie Feb 28, 2010 @ 1:39 pm | delete

My dear, you have definitely made a mark with this resource -- loving it!

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CaseyShannonStudio Mar 24, 2009 @ 11:24 am | delete

Wonderful resource. Thanks.

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d-artist Sep 23, 2008 @ 1:49 pm | delete

very cool lens! I found a book "Japanese Prints from the Early Masters to the Modern by James A. Michner, with this book I got a dozen very old prints...this lens has helped me 5*s

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TheInfamous7 Aug 6, 2008 @ 5:32 pm | delete

Fantastic Lens full of Info!! Im working on my 5th Lens chronicling the Art of Ancient Japan, which i just know you'll love!!

Keep up the Splendid work!!..

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makingamark Jul 26, 2008 @ 11:46 am | delete

Rose - my sites are pretty much limited to visual arts - drawing and painting. Besides - I know very little about Japanese films although I'm sure there's scope for somebody to do a nice lens about them.

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rose08 Jul 26, 2008 @ 8:42 am | delete

interesting collections, how about introduce some Japanese movies?

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maryluaggo Jul 18, 2008 @ 3:25 pm | delete

Great information- thanks! For more history, go to http://www.encyclopaedicnet.com, an encyclopedia website.