For over two hundred and fifty years, Japan had isolated itself from the rest
of the world - this was the time of
the Tokugawa Shogunate (1615-1868), a military
dictatorship of samurai, headed up by the
Tokugawa clan.
It was a
time of peace and prosperity and since
politics and government were the monopoly of
the samurai class, the only outlet for the
growing merchant class ("chonin") was in the
economic sector, making financial profits. As their wealth grew, and it grew rapidly, the
chonin increased their appetite for pleasure
and the joys of this world ("ukiyo"). Haiku,
the kabuki theater, yoshiwara districts
(the "pleasure quarters") netsuke carvings,
graphic and performing arts of all sorts found willing
patrons and able practitioners.
Much of the spirit of those times was depicted with
great clarity in the woodblock prints of
Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige. These
prints, brought to the West by traders and ship captains in the nineteenth century,
became collector's items and had a marked effect on the work of artists throughout
Europe.
In
Tokugawa Japan, woodblock prints quickly
became "pop art", the art of the common
man. Since the possibility of reproducing
many copies from one set of carved blocks
enabled prints to be sold cheaply, they were
thus able to reach a wide
audience.
The
finished print is usually the work of three
men, the original artist who makes the
sketch, the woodblock carver, and the printer
who applies each color to the blocks by
hand. The blocks necessary to produce a
finished print - one for each color used in
addition to the master block with the black
outline - range in number from four to a dozen
or more.
The art continues to develop and flourish with new techniques and forms and collectors today seek out the works of
Munakata, Murakami, Saito and Nakayama among
others.
And now, on the following
pages, I would like to offer a few
examples from my small collection of
woodblock prints for your inspection and enjoyment.
~NEXT~