By the close of the fifteenth century the principles of art in Japan became definitely fixed, as, almost contemporaneously, Giotto established a canon of art in Florence, which he in turn had received from the Attic Greeks, through Cimabue, and which was condensed by Ruskin into a grammar of art, under the term “Laws of Fésole”.
The two great schools, Tosa and Kanō, flourished independently until the middle of the eighteenth century, when the genius of the popular artists, forming the school of Ukiyo-e, gradually fused the traditions of Tosa and Kanō, absorbing the methods of these rival schools which, differing in technique and motive, were united in their proud disdain of the new art which dared to represent the manners and customs of the common people. Suzuki Harunobu and Katsushika Hokusai, Torii Kiyonaga and Utagawa Hiroshige were the crowning glory of all the schools – the artists whose genius told the story of their country, day by day, weaving a century of history into one living encyclopaedia, sumptuous in form, kaleidoscopic in colour.
Ukiyo-e prepared Japan for intercourse with other nations by developing in the common people an interest in other countries, in science and foreign culture, and by promoting the desire to travel, through the means of illustrated books of varied scenes. To Ukiyo-e, the Japanese owed the gradual expansion of international consciousness, which culminated in the revolution of 1868 – a revolution, the most astonishing in history, accomplished as if by miracle; but the esoteric germ of this seemingly spontaneous growth of Meiji lay in the atelier of the artists of Ukiyo-e.
To trace the evolution of the Popular School in its development through nearly three centuries is a lengthy study, of deep interest. The mists of uncertainty gather about the lives of many apostles of Ukiyo-e, from the originator, Iwasa Matahei, to Utagawa Hiroshige, one of the latest disciples, whose changes of style and diversity of signature have given rise to the supposition that as many as three artists are entitled to the name. These mists of tradition cannot be altogether dispersed by such indefatigable students as Louis Gonse, Professor Fenollosa, Edmond de Goncourt, W. Anderson, John S. Happer and many others, but by their aid the methods of Oriental Art are clarified and explained.
Tōshūsai Sharaku, Actor Ōtani Oniji III as the yakko Edobei, 1794.
Brocade print, 36.8 × 23.6 cm.
Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo.
Utagawa Kunimasa, The Actor Ichikawa Omezō as the Kudō Suketsune, 1803–1804.
Colour woodblock print, 36.9 × 25.6 cm.
Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu.
Iwasa Matabei, the date of whose birth is given as 1578, is considered to be the originator of the Popular School. The spontaneous growth of great movements and the mystery of the source of genius are illustrated in the career of Matabei. His environment fitted him to follow in the footsteps of his master, Tosa Mitsunobu. Yet the city of Kyoto, veiled in mystic sanctity, where religion and princely patronage held art in conventional shackles, gave birth to the leader of the Popular School. Still, was not Kyoto, the sacred heart of Japan, a fit cradle for Ukiyo-e, the life and soul of the Japanese people?
Matabei and his followers entered into the spirit of the Japanese temperament, and from the Popular School sprang liberty and a novelty of horizon. The aristocratic schools had confined themselves to representations of princely pageantry, to portraiture, and to ideal pictures of mythical personages, saints and sages. The tradition of China showed in all their landscapes, which reflected ethereal vistas classically rendered, of an alien land. Therefore Matabei was contemptuously disowned by Tosa for depicting scenes from the life of his countrymen, yet the technique of Kanō and Tosa were the birthright of the artists of Ukiyo-e, an inalienable inheritance in form, into which they breathed the spirit of life, thus revivifying an art grown cold and academic, and frosted with tradition. The colouring of Kanō had faded, tending continually toward monochrome, but the Ukiyo-e painters restored the use of gorgeous pigments, preserving the glory of Kanō Yeitoku, the court painter to Hideyoshi.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, The ‘Chushingura’ (The Story of the Forty-Seven Ronin – Masterless Samurai); A Scene from Act II when the Ronin Attack Moronao’s Castle, c. 1854.
Colour woodblock print. Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery, Maidstone.
Shumbaisai Hokuei, The Kabuki Actors Utaemon III and Iwai Shijaku I, 1832.
Colour woodblock print, 38 × 25.5 cm.
Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Shumbaisai Hokuei, Nakamura Shikan II as Tadanobu, 1835.
Colour woodblock print, 36.4 × 24.4 cm.
Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
In the middle of the seventeenth century appeared Hishikawa Moronobu, considered by many to be the real founder of Ukiyo-e. His genius welded with the new motif the use of the block for printing, an innovation which led to the most characteristic development in Ukiyo-e art. This art of printing, which originated in China and Korea, had, until the beginning of the seventeenth century, been confined solely to the service of religion for the reproduction of texts and images, but Moronobu conceived the idea of using the form of printed book illustration, just coming into vogue, as a channel to set forth the life of the people. Besides painting and illustrating books, he began printing single sheets, occasionally adding to the printed outlines dashes of colour from the brush, principally in orange and green. These sheets, the precursors of the Ukiyo-e prints, superseded the Otsu-e – impressionistic hand-paintings, drafted hastily for rapid circulation. The Otsu-e were sometimes richly illuminated, the largest surfaces in the costumes being filled in with a ground of black lacquer, and ornamented with layers of gold leaf attached by varnish.
Moronobu acquired his technique from both Tosa and Kanō, but was originally a designer for the rich brocades and tissues woven in Kyoto. He added to this art that of embroidery, and leaving Kyoto, took up this branch at the rival city Edo, where all the arts and crafts were developing under the fostering care of the Tokugawa Shoguns, the dynasty with which Ukiyo-e art is practically coextensive. It was he who designed for his countrywomen their luxurious trailing robes, with enormous sleeves, richly embroidered – gorgeous and stately garments which he loved to reproduce on paper, with marvellous powers of sweeping line. As in all fashions of dress, in time the graceful lines became exaggerated until, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, they overstepped the limits of beauty, and approached the realm of caricature. Today, in the modern poster, we see perpetuated the degenerate offspring of the genius of Moronobu, of whom it is remarked that his enlarged compositions have the plasticity of bas-reliefs.
An artist who greatly influenced Moronobu was Kanō Tanyu of the School of Kanō, whose masterpiece may be seen at the great temple in Kyoto – four painted panels of lions of indescribable majesty. Under Tanyu’s direction the task of reproducing the old masterpieces was undertaken. The artists of Ukiyo-e were always ready to profit by the teaching of all the schools; therefore, to properly follow the methods of the Popular School, we must study the work of the old masters and the subjects from which they derived their inspiration.
In this brief résumé we cannot follow the fluctuations of Japanese Art through the centuries. During long periods of conflict and bloody internecine strife, art languished; when peace reigned, then in the seclusion of their yashikis these fierce and princely warriors threw down