Kuniyoshi Art
Kuniyoshi Art
Ukiyo-e Master Hokusai's Great Wave of Woodblock ArtHokusai (1760-1849) is world-famous for his designs of Mount Fuji, the most famous mountain of Japan. Hokusai (meaning 'pole-star' ) represents Mount Fuji in an impressive triangular shape in his prints of the holy mountain in the summer with massive floating clouds with lightning to the side of the mountian. One glance on such a simple and effective composition makes an unforgettable impression on the viewer. Mini Biography Little is known about Hokusai's early life. From what he has told himself he developed an urge to draw all kinds of subjects related to nature from the age of 6. Also from an early age he came into touch with the art of woodcutting. This experience was as a 'hidden force' when he became a woodblock designer in his adult life. At the age of 19 he started as a pupil of Shunsho which marks the beginning of his career as a illustrator. His first prints give the impression that Hokusai was not a natural talent but that was compensated by his possessiveness to drawing and his productivity which is unmatched in the history of Ukiyo-e. Initially he designed mainly kabuki (actor) prints and book illustrations but slowly he started experimenting within the other Ukiyo-e genres such as surimono (commissioned print), kacho-ga (flower and bird print) and shunga (erotic print). Manga In 1812 Hokusai travelled to Kyoto and Osaka. On this ocassion he produced hundreds of sketches with the intention of getting them published in the form of a handbook on the art of drawing. Between 1812 and 1820 the first ten volumes were published which are known to the world as the 'Sketchbooks of Hokusai' (Hokusai Manga). This overwhelming quantity and striking diversity of sketches shows the viewer the full reality of the Japanese daily life. The subjects are almost unlimited and forms a colourful encyclopaedia of human life and labour, myths and legends and of the material and natural environment. Great Wave It is like the production of these sketchbooks were a finger exercise, a contemplative preamble for his masterpiece which places Hokusai in the pantheon of greatest artists being on a par with Raphaël, Michelangelo and Rembrandt. This masterpiece series, called the '36 Views of Mount Fuji' (Fugaku sanjurokkei), with Mount Fuji as its main subject, portrayed under changing weather circumstances from different locations and points of view, was published when Hokusai was 70. One of the prints is called the 'Beneath the Wave of Kanagawa' (The Great Wave) and is the most famous print in the history of Japanese woodblock art. Hokusai's Great Wave print depicts one enormous wave coming from the left and reaching up into the sky with its tentacle crests ready to smash the boats including their passengers. It's the magnificent juxtaposition of the three elements the divine, the human and the earthly presented here in a perfect harmony giving the image such an impact and power. It was Hokusai's '36 Views of Mount Fuji' -series and especially The Great Wave that provided the impressionists a decisive impulse in their quest inventing a new art as stated by Edmond de Goncourt in his book on Hokusai in 1896: "This horizontal series, with its rather crude colours, which nonetheless attempt to reproduce nature's colours under all lightning conditions, is the album which inspires the landscapes of the impressionists of the present moment". Books on Hokusai 'Hokusai' by Gian Carlo Calza, ' The Hokusai Sketchbooks' by James A. Michener, Hokusai: 'First Manga Master' by Jocelyn Bouquillard and Christophe Marquet. About the Author My name is Marijn Kruijff and I am an artdealer specialized in Japanese woodblock prints. We have a website called AK-Antiek and are located in Coevorden, the Netherlands. On our site we have a special section of Hokusai's work. |
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Shunga, An Introduction To A Japanese Erotic Mystery
Shunga, literally "Images of Spring", is the generic term used to describe erotic prints, books, scrolls and paintings of Japan.
History
The beginning of the shunga genre is connected with the origins of Ukiyo-e ('Images of the floating world') and starts with the work of Hishikawa Moronobu and his school between 1660-1670. Originally shunga were published as erotic manuals (guides) for the most popular courtesans in houses of pleasure. But with the growth of prosperity, the expansion of the brothels in Edo (today's Tokyo) and the alterations in the Japanese caste system with the merchants getting wealthier, embracing a hedonistic lifestyle, shunga gained a more diverting purpose. Shops in the pleasure quarters of Edo, called the Yoshiwara, sold shunga prints and books as souvenir to the visitors of the brothels. Shunga were also offered as dowry to newly-weds as an educational guide. Around 1765 with the transition to multi-colour woodblock printing, before woodblock prints were colored either by hand or printed with a limited palette, the shunga genre entered new ground (both aesthetically and commercially).This revival lasted another century ending at the start of the Meiji period (1868-1912) when Japan opened its economic and cultural gates to the West. During the Meiji period only a few artists specialized in designing shunga prints which were mainly influenced by Western art.
Subjects and Themes
At first glance a shunga image can have a confrontational effect on the (Western) viewer because of the undisguised way the subject matter has been portrayed or the exaggerated depiction of genitalia. Once accustomed he can experience the striking compositions and use of colour, the humour and the daring handling of themes. The shunga genre accommodates a wide range of themes. Besides the rendering of conventional heterosexual love-making mostly between married couples or courtesans and their clients it also dealt with the homosexual and lesbian acts of love, scenes involving hermaphrodites, mythical figures, ghosts, Westerners, bestiality and even necrophelia.
Censorship
In Japan, during the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate from 1660 to 1868, shunga were seen as objects injurious to public morals and subject to unavailing censorship. Today they are still prohibited but classified as erotica and therefore tolerated. It is nevertheless not permitted to import them into the country.
Shunga Today
"Recently it has become more widely admitted that, at their best, they are to be ranked - with works by Western artists of the caliber of Dürer, Rembrandt and Degas - among the finest of all graphic art". (Tom Evans -in ' Shunga, The Art of Love in Japan' )
Over the last decade the attitudes in Japan regarding shunga have changed resulting in the publication of a huge quantity of books including uncensored material and shunga studies in Japan. In the West, the publications on shunga started in 1975 with the ground-breaking book 'Shunga, The Art of Love in Japan' by Tom and Mary Evans followed by Jack Hillier's 'Art of the Japanese Book' in 1987. The memorable exhibition in 1989 at the Musée d'Ilx-elles in Brussels, where the most impressive works in the show were of the shunga genre, also contributed to a renewed interest. In 2005, a unique exhibition was held in the Kunsthal Rotterdam called 'Lentelust' with a chronological overview of this art form. A new extensive publication on shunga by Gian Carlo Calza has been planned for the Spring of 2010.
Books on Shunga
'Shunga, the Art of Love in Japan' (1975) - Tom and Mary Evans
'Art of the Japanese Book' (1987) - Jack Hillier
'The Complete Ukiyo-e Shunga' (1995 to 2000) - R. Lane and Y.Hayashi
'Shunga, the Erotic Art of Japan' (1997) - Marco Fagioli
'Sex and the Floating World' (1999) - Timon Screech
'Japanese Erotic Prints' (2002) - Inge Klompmakers
'Japanese Erotic Fantasies' (2005) - C. Uhlenbeck and M. Winkel
Important Shunga Artists
Hishikawa Moronobu (? -1694) Suzuki Harunobu (c.1725-1770) Isoda Koryusai (1735-90) Kitagawa Utamaro (1753 -1806) Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815) Katsukawa Shuncho (act. c.1780s-early 1800s) Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) Yanagawa Shigenobu (1787-1833) Keisai Eisen (1790-1848) Kikugawa Eizan (1787-1867) Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89)
About the Author
We have a website called AK-Antiek and are located in Coevorden, the Netherlands. We offer a large and varied collection of antique, jewelry and art. On the following pages you can find more info on the beautiful art of shunga: http://www.akantiek.nl/shunga.htm and http://www.akantiek.nl/shun8.htm . Click on the following link for more info on shunga's designed by the famous Ukiyo-e artist Hokusai: http://www.akantiek.nl/hokusai.htm
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