Japanese Ukiyo-e Appreciation · First Series: Beauties and Courtesans Painting (10)

Author: Kuniyoshi Utagawa
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-10-01
Features: Ukiyo-e, referring to the genre of folk paintings from the Edo period in Japan. The term "ukiyo" originates from Buddhist terminology, meaning the myriad phenomena of the world, or the various social realities one sees and hears. In the late 17th century, it was adopted by Japanese scholars for artistic purposes, giving rise to ukiyo-e. The production method of ukiyo-e involved first creating more expensive ink paintings, followed by the emergence of the widely recognized woodblock prints. Ukiyo-e includes folk paintings centered on beautiful women, performer paintings depicting kabuki actors, as well as landscapes, flowers, birds, insects, grasses, and paintings of animals and plants. Among these, the beautiful women paintings and performer paintings are considered the two major themes of ukiyo-e, renowned for their unique charm, attracting widespread attention and being widely collected by major museums around the world. Kuniyoshi Utagawa (1786–1864) was a key figure in the Utagawa school, specializing in beautiful women paintings and performer paintings. His early works in the genre were highly praised, characterized by strong individuality and a vivid sense of the era. The beautiful women depicted by Kuniyoshi were not idealized, but rather ordinary women in their daily lives: their expressions conveyed melancholy and exhaustion, their movements were languid, and their postures were alluring, earning them the classification of "decadent-type" beauties. This volume features sixteen of Kuniyoshi's beautiful women paintings, along with five representative works by Kuniyoshi Toyoharu, also of the Utagawa school, and three series of beautiful women paintings by Kuniyoshi Toyokuni.