Floating Along in the World of Japanese Prints

Images of Beauty Throughout the Ages

 

Hana Moyō (Patterns for Flowers), by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915), is a series of triptychs published in 1896, each one of which features a beautiful woman from a specific historical era set against a distant background scene. The way the figure in the foreground is shown close-up in contrast to the smaller figures depicted in the background of each triptych makes this an unusual and striking set of designs. The title refers both to the beauties themselves (the flowers) and the patterns of their beautifully decorated garments. It's a stunning set and one of my favourites. It's also very interesting for anyone wanting to compare the modes of dress and arrangement of hair throughout different periods of Japanese history.

Above: The Keichō Era (1596-1615). The above design is often described as being a picture of a male actor; the subject is actually a woman. As we are so accustomed to the fact that men play both the male and female roles on the kabuki stage nowadays, and have done since 1629, it may surprise you to learn that kabuki's creator was in fact a woman. Her name was Okuni and she is the woman depicted here. She is shown dressed as a man, taking part in a performance which took place on the third day of the sixth month of 1606.

Above: The Kan'ei (1624-1643) and Shōhō (1644-1648) Eras. A beauty reading a scroll, wearing her hair in the shimada style.

Above: From the Jō-ō (1652-1655) to the Manji Era (1658-1661). A beauty wearing her hair in the karawa style, seated in a boat on the river, with another pleasure boat passing behind in the distance.

Above: The Kanbun Era (1661-1673). The woman shown in this print is wearing her hair in the katsuyama style, which was introduced during the middle of the seventeenth century and became very popular during the Genroku era (1688-1704). Her robe is adorned with a pattern of poetry cards.

Above: The Enpō Era (1673-1681). A beauty, wearing her hair loosely tied, reclines before a folding screen, upon which colourful theatrical scenes have been painted.

Above: The Kyōhō Era (1716-1736). A courtesan is shown during the nighttime, her hair falling around her shoulders. She is tying her sash and holding a wad of tissues between her teeth, something often seen in depictions of courtesans.

Above: The An'ei Era (1772-1781). The print above shows a young woman making her way to a bathhouse. She is wearing a ribbon around her hair (which is worn in the bai-mage style) to keep it tidy while she is bathing, there is a towel draped over her shoulder for drying off when she is done, and between her teeth she is holding a nukabukuro, a bran bag which, like modern soap, was used for washing the skin.

Above: The Tenmei Era (1781-1789). A beauty with her hair dressed in the tate-hyōgo style is shown holding a mirror in one hand and a tissue in the other as she applies her make-up, wearing a robe decorated with scenes from the Tale of Genji.

Above: The Bunka Era (1804-1818). A courtesan, wearing her hair in the shimada style, is dressing the hair of the courtesan before her, whose hair is arranged in the marumage style and adorned with numerous hair pins. You'll come across these two styles a lot amongst Utamaro's prints, as they were very popular towards the end of the 18th century and into the nineteenth.

Above: The Tenpō Era (1830-1844). In the above print, a courtesan is shown with men making their way along Naka-no-chō, the central boulevard of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter, behind her. On the right, a man is advertising Ichi-ya noodles. Ichi-ya can also mean one night, as in one night stand, so the sign is also intended as a reference to the fleeting nature of the woman's relationships with the men who visit the pleasure quarter. Her hair is arranged in the yoko-hyōgo style and decorated with a multitude of pins. By this time, a courtesan's hair incorporated so much adornment, it's a wonder that she could walk without toppling over due to the sheer weight of it all.

The Twelve Hours of the Yoshiwara

 

I'm interested in all sorts of woodblock prints of all shapes and sizes. Aside from an interest in advertising prints and calendars, which I mentioned in my last post, I also collect woodblock-printed postcards. The following set, The Twelve Hours of the Yoshiwara, was designed by Odake Kokkan (1880–1945) and published in 1906. Kokkan was born in Niigata and studied under Kobori Tomone, specialising in historical subjects. He and his brothers, Odake Chikuha and Odake Etsudō, designed illustrations for various magazines during the 1890s, so if you have an interest in kuchi-e (frontispiece illustrations) you may have come across his work.

By the time this set was produced, the depiction of the daily activities of the women of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter, generally in the form of a set of twelve prints, had long been a popular theme amongst Japanese woodblock print artists. Traditionally, the Japanese clock was divided into twelve segments, six daytime ones and six night-time ones, with each one being named after an animal of the zodiac (you can read more about the old system of telling time by clicking here). However, whilst still portraying the women's activities during twelve segments of the day, the set of cards below uses the modern twenty-four hour clock that was introduced into Japan in 1872.

Above left: 2 o'clock in the afternoon - A courtesan has finished having a wash, brushing her teeth and so on.

Above right: 4 o'clock in the afternoon - A courtesan has had her hair dressed and is putting on her dresses in preparation for the evening's work.

Above: 6 o'clock in the evening - A courtesan is engaging a prospective client in conversation whilst on display in the display cage at the front of the brothel.

Above: 8 o'clock in the evening - A man is shown making his way along the central boulevard of the Yoshiwara to one of the many brothels with the assistance of  servants from a teahouse.

Above: 10 o'clock at night - Two clients are shown meeting courtesans at an assignation teahouse.

Above. Midnight - Courtesans are seated in the display cage at the front of their brothel; a regular customer arrives at the brothel in a rickshaw.

Above left: 2 o'clock in the morning - Geisha are making their way to an appointment while a man sits eating alongside a food stall.

Above right: 4 o'clock in the morning - Men who have stayed the night are washing their faces and brushing their teeth before preparing to leave the pleasure quarter.

Above left: 6 o'clock in the morning - Men who have stayed overnight are caught in a downpour on their way out of the pleasure quarter.

Above right: 8 o'clock in the morning - A courtesan sits reading a love letter from one of her regular clients.

Above: 10 o'clock in the morning - Men who have decided to stay into the next day are relaxing and listening to music.

Above: Midday - Courtesans sit inside the display cage at the front of the brothel, watching street entertainers before the preparations for the evening's work begin again.

Was Utamaro Obsessed with Women?

 

Hanamurasaki of the Tamaya, from  An Array of Supreme Beauties of the Present Day (Tōji zensei bijin zoroe), published c.1794 by Wakasaya Yoichi.

An awful lot is made of Utamaro's frequent depiction of women, specifically of his images of women from the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter. The conclusion still drawn by many is that he was thoroughly obsessed with women, particularly ladies of the night, and that he most likely died a worn out old roué. So, is the frequent depiction of these women enough to prove an overwhelming obsession with them? Well, in deciding such a question it rather depends on the existence of freedom to choose a subject on the part of the artist.

One thing to remember is that Utamaro earned a living as an artist. He wasn't a hobbyist, free to paint whatever he liked without the constraints of considering the requirements of a paying publisher and public, so it would be sensible to suppose that his need to earn a living outweighed any personal desire to choose subject matter which pleased him personally. 

Given that an artist, if he wants to get paid, must produce whatever his patron/publisher/public requires, Utamaro's frequent depiction of women suggests only two things: that his public had a taste for images of women and that he possessed a level of skill in depicting them that made the production of such images financially rewarding.

Perhaps it's tempting to portray Utamaro as a womaniser simply because there are so few details available to us regarding his life; maybe there's an urge to flesh him out a bit and make him more human. But it's unwise to draw conclusions in the absence of concrete evidence. We can conclude that he was an immensely talented artist, that he excelled at depictions of the female sex and that his public appreciated his skill. Beyond that, all is conjecture.