Japanese Ukiyo-e Appreciation Series II: Landscapes · Flowers and Birds · Paintings of Animals and Plants

Author: Wu Guiyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-10-01
Features: Among the ukiyo-e painters in Japan, only Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige can be regarded as masters of landscape painting. Both created many masterpieces of landscapes, flowers and birds, and paintings of plants and animals. Hokusai's paintings combine grandeur and purity, with ingenious compositions and a strong individuality. He could create moving scenes with limited colors and simple compositions. His brushwork is powerful, full of vitality and resilience, and the vigor and life force leap off the canvas. Sometimes, he added Chinese poems or haiku to his paintings, showcasing refined artistic taste. The "Fujisan Sanjūroku-kei" series is the pinnacle of this artist's landscape painting skills. Hiroshige's works, on the other hand, are natural and realistic. His simple, elegant, and lyrical style, along with his subtle and unique color combinations, often evoke contemplation, melancholy, and a sense of being immersed in Buddhist serenity.
Ukiyo-e refers to the genre of folk paintings from the Edo period in Japan. The term "ukiyo" originates from Buddhist language, meaning the myriad phenomena of the world, or the 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 known woodblock prints. Ukiyo-e includes folk paintings centered on beautiful women, actor paintings depicting kabuki performers, as well as landscapes, flowers and birds, insects and grasses, and paintings of plants and animals. Among these, the beautiful women paintings and actor paintings, which are collectively known as the two major themes of ukiyo-e, are renowned for their unique charm, attracting worldwide attention and being widely collected by major museums around the world.