A history of Japanese colour-prints

Front matter

'MXk

A HISTORY OF JAPANESE COLOUR-PRINTS

THE JAPANESE DANCE. By Marcelle A.

Preface

The first comprehensive survey of Japanese Wood-Engraving, Anderson’s monograph in the Portfolio , appeared in 1895. The first attempt to write a history of this art was Strange’s totally inadequate Japanese Illustration of 1897. Unfortunately, Strange had published before he was able to take advantage of the new light thrown upon his subject by Fenollosa, in his illuminating Catalogue of 1896, The Masters of Ukiyoye. The only remaining sources of information for the student were a number of scattered articles, monographs, exhibition catalogues, and sale catalogues, and it seemed to me that I might do a useful work by gathering together all this disjointed learning into a coherent whole. Japanese art has become an element in our European culture ; it supplies certain needs of our age, and makes distinctly for its progress. But in order to appreciate Japanese Wood-Engraving to the full, we must know the interrelation between the various artists, and the successive stages of development in their art ; we also require a criterion by which to test individual essays, that we may not rest content with weak and imitative work when the best is within reach. A survey of Japanese Wood-Engraving which would serve these ends was the task I accordingly set before me.

In any appreciation of Japanese art, everything depends on the standpoint adopted by the critic. If, as the majority of writers on this subject have been wont to do, we apply the European standard, we shall be led to hail the impressionistic artists of the nineteenth century, and notably Hokusai, as the protagonists of Japanese Wood-Engraving, for we are naturally

V

VI

PREFACE affected by the affinities we discern between our own ideals and those of these artists, in whom the European leaven had begun to work. If, however, we try, like Fenollosa, to take the Japanese point of view, we shall recognise that Hokusai’s real greatness lies in those very elements of his art which are most alien to us ; and we shall see, further, that among the innumerable masters of the eighteenth century, there were many who were .greatly superior to him. The art of the nineteenth century, with which alone the general public is to some extent familiar, has been given an importance far in excess of its deserts. It was at best an aftermath, and in some respects a decadence. I have therefore dealt with it somewhat summarily, whereas I have traced the developments of the eighteenth century, constituting a rich, a steady and a varied evolution, with all possible care and elaboration. My book is a provisional essay in the synthetic presentment of our knowledge of Japanese Colour-Printing, and a guide for those who require some direction in this, as yet by no means familiar field. I have made no attempt at exhaustive treatment, for any such a scheme would be impossible of execution, in the face of the contradictions which abound in the literature bearing on my subject in different countries. The collector must not look here for a treatise which will relieve him from the necessity of independent research or verification. Certain inequalities of the work may be explained by its genesis. Where the material on which I had to work was better prepared, as, for instance, in the case of Utamaro and Hokusai by the Goncourts, I was of course able to offer more. I have not shrunk from repetition on occasion, when it seemed necessary to emphasise notable facts or to impress important views on the reader. With few exceptions, I have relied upon Fenollosa’s Catalogue in describing the development of Japanese Colour-Printing, and the characteristics of the individual artists. I trust I have in every instance

PREFACE vii

rightly interpreted the opinions of this distinguished expert. Though it has been my earnest endeavour to keep the Japanese ideal in view, many may still object that the criticisms of artists such as Kiyonaga, Sharaku, and Hokusai are over-European in sentiment. In cases where there were materials tor comparative judgment, and where it seemed likely to be fruitful of results, I have not hesitated to apply our own divergent standard occasionally.

My thanks are due to all who have helped me either in practical matters or with their advice, and in the first place to Messrs. Vever, Koechlin, Bing, and Gillot of Paris, Koepping, Liebermann, and Pächter of Berlin, and Oeder of Düsseldorf, who most kindly gave me leave to reproduce prints in their collections. Others to whom I am indebted are Messrs. Migeon of Paris, and Brinckmann of Hamburg, who supplied me with many valuable notes ; and last, but not least, Mr. Shinkichi Hara, who was good enough to read through my text, to give me many precious hints and explanations relating to the prints, and briefly, to make this edition, imperfect though it may be, both more correct and more informing than its predecessor. The publishers of the English version of this work also owe acknowledgments to Mr. J. V. Scholderer of the British Museum for revision of the translation, and to Mr. Laurence Binyon for helpful suggestions in connection therewith.

Contents

V CHAP. PACK

I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS i

II. A SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF JAPANESE

II 9°

1 1 2 1 12 114

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv

UTAGAWA TOYONOBU : Acrobats . . . Face page

SHUNYEI : Peasant Girl in Trousers and Sandals

leading a Horse loaded with Rice-straw . ,,

KIYONAGA: A Terrace by the Sea ... „

KIYONAGA : Three Singers at the Bath . . ,,

KIYONAGA: Musical Entertainment with the

Koto (below) and the Shamisen . . . . ,,

Koepping Collection , Berlin

KIYOTSUNE : An Actor as the Poet Botankwa

ON AN Ox LED BY A COURTESAN .... ,,

YEIRI : A Singer

YEISHI : A Lady of Rank seated and leaning on

THE hijikake ........ ,,

YEISHO : Two Courtesans ..... ,,

UTAMARO: Night Festival on the Sumida River,

Yedo ,,

UTAMARO: Grasshopper and Caterpillar . . ,,

UTAMARO : Two Ladies, one of whom is being

HELD BACK BY A GlRL ...... ,,

UTAMARO : An Elopement Scene .... „

UTAMARO : Kintoki suckled by the Mountain-

UTAMARO: Mother and Child (La Gimblette) . ,,

NAGAYOSHI : Chasing Fireflies on a Summer

SHARAKU : Two Actors ...... ,,

SHARAKU : Actor in a Female Part, holding

1 1 6

1 1 6 120 12 2

*54

XVI

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TOYOKUNI : Woman in her Boat .... Face page 158

TOYOHIRO: The Evening Bells of Uyeno (Park

containing the Tombs of the Shoguns) at Yedo „ 160

SHUNRO (HOKUSAI): Courtesan in a Bath-gown, with her Servant, who is arranging a Pair of Shoes ........ „162

HOKUSAI : Three Girls boating at the Season of

Cherry-blossom ....... „164

HOKUSAI: A Travelling Company. . . . „ 166

HOKUSAI: A Boat laden with Mats and Melons ,, 166

HOKUSAI: The Wave „168

HOKUSAI: Fuji in Fine Weather from the South „ 168

HOKUSAI: Lilies ....... ,,172

HOKUSAI: Lobster and Pine-eranch . . . ,, 172

KUNIYOSHI : The Priest Nichiren, Founder of the Buddhist Sect Hokka (Thirteenth Century), in the Snow ....... ,,188

HIROSHIGE: Travellers ascending a Mountain in

HIROSHIGE: The Hurricane ..... „ 190

HIROSHIGE: Wild Geese at Full Moon . . „ 192

ERRATA

On plate facing p. 9 for Kujomitsu read Kiyomitsu ,, ,, p. 22 for Shunti read Shunki

,, ,, p. 68 for Byun read Bijin.

CHAPTER I i. Character of Japanese Painting — 2. Technique — 3. The Opening Up of Japan

1. Character of Japanese Painting. — Japanese painting, like its parent art, Chinese painting, differs from modern European painting in this, that it deliberately foregoes all means of producing an immediate illusion. It knows nothing of the third dimension, but confines itself to decorative effects in one plane ; at the same time the extraordinarily developed powers of observation in the Japanese enable it to convey an unusual amount of life and spirit.1

With the Japanese space is not indicated by receding degrees of depth, and if represented at all, at least in the best period of their art, is not subject to the laws of a strict perspective, being merely indicated by a series of scenes, as on the stage. Men and objects in space are not rounded, and cast no shadows ; shadows so cast being, according to the Chinese doctrine, something accidental and not worthy of representation at all. Objects do not throw back the sunlight in the form of high lights, nor do they reflect other objects in their neighbourhood ; this is most conspicuous in the case of water, which shows neither reflections nor high lights. Hence anything in the nature of chiaroscuro, a homogeneous scheme of light altering 1 See Madsen, p. 12 flf. ; Brinckmann, i. 174-81.

A all the colour-values in a certain direction, is out of the question, whether in representations of interiors or the open air. Moreover, the proportions of the figures are usually quite arbitrary, partly because of insufficient attention to this point, partly from deliberate purpose.

The immobility of the features is to be explained by the peculiar Japanese notion of decorum, which insists on a constantly equable seriousness of expression, one result being that the women have their eyebrows shaved off, their lips painted blue-red (with beni), and their faces thickly covered with powder — as is not unknown in Europe. But the bodies also generally appear in a state of repose bordering on rigidity ; a slight flexure — to which the loosely flowing robes yield without effort — a scarcely noticeable inclination must suffice to express the character and psychology of the person represented : even in daily life the exchange of emotions leads to no bodily contact ; hand-shaking is entirely unknown, kissing is not customary, any more than walking arm-in-arm. Even the dances of the Japanese offer few occasions for livelier movement ; in general they are confined to pantomime, suggesting the emotions to be conveyed by the posture of the body, the movement of legs and hands, and especially by the expression of the eye. Hence there are few opportunities for foreshortening and overlapping.

To be sure, since the end of the eighteenth century some artists had begun to break through these rules, and endeavoured to apply the notions of perspective which they learnt from Europe, to give greater depth and unity to the landscape and greater expressiveness to the figures, and indeed certain masters of earlier periods, the book-illustrators Moronobu, Sukenobu, Shigemasa, had produced designs remarkable for movement and animation. But all of them adhered to certain significant characteristics, notably the absence of shadows and modelling, so that the

Gillot Collection, Paris

MORÖNOBU : Two Court Ladies, an old one to the Right, a young one to the Left. Book illustration.

whole of Japanese art, even down to its most recent past, remains in its principles fundamentally opposed to modern European art.

In order to do justice to this peculiarity of Eastern Asiatic art, we must mentally revert to the point of view of such periods as have pursued similar decorative aims in contrast to the naturalistic aims predominating to-day. In the art of Egypt and of Greece up to Alexandrine times, in the Roman and Gothic periods up to the discovery of perspective in Italy and the invention of oil-painting in Flanders at the beginning of the fifteenth century, we meet with very similar endeavours. During all these periods the art of painting was absolutely conventional, and contented itself with certain more or less fixed types that altered only very gradually ; yet by the aid of a careful and precise contour, nicely calculated masses of light and shade, and a harmonious colour-scheme, it succeeded in achieving effects at once decorative and monumental, and at the same time in imparting to the representation a varying content of strength, grace, or sublimity, according to the character of the subject. By this method no imitation of nature, no complete deception or illusion is either endeavoured or attained ; and yet such an art ranks at least as high in our estimation as that of the realistic period in which we ourselves are living ; not only so, but we see that the greatest artists of this very period, a Raphael, a Michaelangelo, a Da Vinci, when they were brought: face to face with the highest problems of decorative art, sacrificed a great part of the literal truth which they might have attained in order to augment the grandeur, intelligibility, and impressiveness of their creations, thus approaching once more the simpler ideal of the past, though unable to achieve quite the same effects as the ancients.

The attempt has been made to account for the idiosyncrasy of Eastern Asiatic art on technical grounds inherent in the nature of the country, such as the flimsy construction of the houses, which are small and offer no solid wall-space for truly monumental painting to develop on, or the exclusive use of such elementary media as water-colour and Indian ink — or the position in which the artist works, according to the custom of the country, squatting on the ground and having his painting surface spread out horizontally before him ; the consequence being that he only gets, as it were, a bird’s-eye view of his picture, and that in the case of the usual long rolls, he can never overlook it as a whole, any more than the spectator can, who inspects the pictures in the same attitude. Now it is quite true that oil-painting, which might easily have brought about a revolution, as it did in Europe, remained unknown to the Eastern Asiatics. Again, had not the volcanic soil, which a succession of earthquakes keeps constantly trembling, prevented the erection of solid masonry, Japanese painting would probably have witnessed a more varied development. But its general character, tendency, and aims would have remained the same ; the similarity of earlier developments in Europe and the adjacent countries proves it. National peculiarities of soil and custom may give rise to local variations, but cannot determine an art in its essence ; for its roots lie in the national character, which creates its means of representation and technique according to its innate ideals, but conversely will not allow the main tendencies of its art to be determined by external factors.

The imitation of Nature is for the Japanese only a means to an end, not an end in itself. Mere virtuosity in this line does not move them to admiration ; were it otherwise, we need only consider their renderings of birds, fishes, insects, and flowers to be sure that, with their splendid powers of observation, they might have achieved far more than they actually have done in this direction. On the contrary, Nature in their eyes merely furnishes forth the material from which the artist draws whatever he may require for the embodiment of his personal ideals and individual tastes. On these elements he works quite arbitrarily and with absolute freedom ; for painting, after the Chinese precedent, is not regarded as a technical accomplishment or a craft, but ranks on precisely the same level as calligraphy, which is a liberal art and a pastime for people of rank and culture, far more dependent upon purity of feeling, sublimity of conception, exquisiteness of taste, in short, on individual creative power, than on any mere technical dexterity or skill. This estimate of painting as the peer of calligraphy explains not only the decorative character of Japanese art, the strict formalism of its style, the great importance which it attaches to the balance of light and dark masses, the subordination of colour to purely decorative ends, but also the wonderful freedom which Japanese art has always managed to retain in spite of its tendency to formalism. For the essence of calligraphy consists, according to Chinese ideas, by no means in mere neatness and regularity of execution, which might easily lead to stiffness and frigidity, but primarily in the most perfect solution of the artistic problem consistent with the greatest economy of means. The fundamental idea, in fact, here as in all the rhythmic arts, poetry, music, architecture, is that of play. The Japanese deliberately refrains from saying all that he has to say, from giving full plasticity to his figures or depth and breadth to his spaces, from breaking up and balancing his masses by symmetrical division or repetition ; all this would merely draw him away from his goal and fetter the free activity of his imagination. All his efforts are directed towards restricting himself to what is essential to his purpose, employing natural forms in the full freedom and variety of their organic growth, making his contour lines as simple and expressive as possible (Madsen thinks he recognises the Japanese norm of beauty in the S-line) and striking an individual note in his choice of colours. As the objects to be represented are simple and the deficiency in means of realistic representation is skilfully made good by specially calculated effects of colour and technique, the conventionalism of this art, which works by mere suggestion, is very much less noticeable than in the productions of other peoples that are still on a low level of development.

To what extent all this is the result of conscious intention and design is well shown by the utterances of two Japanese who express the national sentiments on this subject. The first, Shuzan, wrote as follows in the year 1777 : 1 “ Among the various kinds of painting there is one which is called the naturalistic, in which it is thought proper to represent flowers, grasses, fishes, insects, &c., exactly as they appear in Nature. This is a special style and certainly not one to be despised ; but since it only aims at showing the forms of things, without regard for the canons of art, it is after all merely a commonplace and can lay no claim to good taste. In the works of former ages the study of the art of outline and of the laws of taste was held in honour, without any exact imitation of the forms of Nature.” The other authority, Motoori, the most eminent scholar and writer of modern Japan, says:2 “Many kinds of style are now in vogue which profess to be imitations of the Chinese, and the representatives of which make a point of painting every object in exact accordance with Nature. This I conceive to be the so-called ‘ realistic ’ art. Now I make no question but that this principle is in itself excellent ; but at the same time there is bound to be a certain difference between real objects and their pictorial presentation.” He then enters more minutely into the difference between the Chinese and the Japanese points of view, and proceeds to set forth how the Chinese are realistic and ugly, how their landscapes are ill designed, sketchy where minute 1 See Anderson, Pictorial Arts. 2 Transactions, xii. 226 ff.

TOYONOBU

BOY DANCING WITH A HOBBY-HORSE (Two-colour print)

urrbzo/O'j

(jnhtj ioo-ow'L i elaboration is called for, but overloaded with detail where a broad treatment would have been better — further, how their birds and insects do not look as though they flew or crawled, how their leaves and trees are not outlined — at least, since there exists no such dividing line between the object and its background in the real world he presumes that they will endeavour to imitate Nature by leaving out these lines. In conclusion he declares himself a strong supporter of Japanese conventionalism.

This is not the place to go into the exact nature of Japanese taste, for this only shows itself in its sharpest definition during the classic period of Japanese painting, which preceded the eighteenth century, the era of wood-engraving. It is the art of the nineteenth century alone which has influenced the most recent developments of European art and modified European taste, although for the Japanese it represents no more than a last phase, a second and less vigorous flowering, however new and subtle its manifestations. It will therefore be sufficient to confine our attention to its formal qualities — the decorative character of its design and its impressionistic point of view.

In these qualities lay predisposed the elements which Europe, during centuries of development along realistic lines, had almost entirely lost sight of. Only a return to the fresh and ever vivid hues of Nature could rescue us from the drab monotony of factitious monochrome ; only a resumption of consciously decorative aims in design could rescue us from a method of figure-drawing whose results had as little distinction or individuality as a photographer’s pose. Pioneers like Manet, Degas, Böcklin, and their followers were active in both directions. So long, however, as European art was still in the stage of preparation and apprenticeship, the Japanese wood-engravings could render but very limited services, nay, might even mislead into an entirely wrong track. To-day, on the other hand, as the goal of artistic endeavour grows gradually clearer, the time is at hand when they too may point the right way towards it, and are no longer in danger of being admired solely for their strange and exquisite subtlety — a subtlety eloquent of that wide-spreading deep-seated canker which afflicted eighteenth-century Japan just as it could have been observed to afflict contemporary Europe.

The differentia of Japanese art is just this, that into perfectly conventional forms is infused a content constantly fresh-drawn from Nature. The development of the European poster, which would be quite unthinkable without Japanese influence, is only the first step towards a renewal of European painting in all its branches, and especially of monumental painting. The solution after which we are reaching has been forming there for centuries. And, whatever the difference of circumstances, requirements, and race, the fact remains that Japanese art is far closer to us than the art of our own past, with which, however much we may admire its productions, we are completely out of touch. The transition to genuine Greek art, which after all is bound to remain our ideal, is easier by far to accomplish from Japanese art than from the romantic art which still endeavours to maintain its hegemony over us to-day.

2. Technique. — In considering the importance of the part which wood-engraving plays in the life of Japan, we must distinguish sharply between the productions of the decline, which began about 1840, and those of the preceding 150 years. The later productions, like our sheets of coloured illustrations, cater for the amusement of the masses : those of earlier periods, on the other hand, occupy a position midway between painted pictures and popular illustrations, much like the woodcuts and copper-plates of the European Renaissance. Here, as in Europe, the designs for the wood-engravings were supplied by professional painters, who either actually continued, or at any rate were fully competent, to follow concurrently their regular

Doucet Collection, Paris

TORII KIYÖMASU : Falcon on Perch. A crested bird with outspread tail fastened to a bar by a cord, which terminates below in a heavy twist finished off by two tassels. Kakemono. Signed: Torii Kiyomasu. Red and yellow predominate.

avocation. But little trouble was commonly taken with the woodcuts intended for illustrative purposes, and the work was mostly ordinary black-and-white. But to colour-prints, whether published in book form or as single sheets, the artists devoted their utmost skill. Had not a considerable value attached to these productions even at their first appearance, comparatively large numbers of good copies would not have survived to the present day.

These woodcuts in fact were, just as in Europe, developed from the art of book-illustration and were not intended as a substitute for painted pictures ; and to make this quite clear, it is necessary to indicate briefly the generically different shape in which Japanese woodcuts and Japanese pictures appear. Whereas the cuts of the good periods are as a rule approximately in large or small quarto, the pictures follow the Chinese model and are designed either ( a ) as kakemonos, long bands suspended vertically, or ( b ) as makimonos, rolls unwrapped horizontally. In the case of the kakemono, the true picture of the Far East, the painting itself is usually mounted on a frame of rich brocade. One, generally, or at most three, of these pictures are hung on the wall, invariably in the tokonoma or recess, where the censer, the flower-vase, and the candlestick are also to be found as a rule. The picture is changed from time to time, and on the occasion of a friend’s visit or the reception of a distinguished stranger the most valuable and venerable piece in the collection is selected for exhibition. On the other hand, the long horizontal rolls called makimonos, which often measure fifteen yards or more, are usually spread out on the floor to be looked at. Originally they constituted the manuscript books of the Japanese and Chinese ; then illustrations were added to the text, gradually encroached on it more and more, and finally ousted the letterpress altogether. The makimono was the favourite form of picture during the most brilliant period of the national art of Japan, when the ancient chivalry shone in full radiance and the Imperial court was at the height of its magnificence. All these paintings were executed in water-colours and were kept rolled up in a separate building (which was also the library), near the dwelling-house. Painting was also employed for the decoration of screens, fans, albums, and so forth.1

As to the Japanese book, it may be remarked that the extreme unpretentiousness of its exterior contrasts with that of the European book ; it generally appears in the shape of a thin tract with a plain limp cover, either as an octavo approaching quarto size or else as a folio of medium dimensions. The sheets, which are ready cut to the size of the book, are folded only once, printed only on one side, and then sewn together with the fold outwards. The first page of the Japanese book is the last according to our method ; the writing runs down the page in vertical lines, beginning in the right-hand top corner, and continuing towards the left margin. The pictures when in oblong form are continued across the pages of the book as it lies open ; and although each half is enclosed in a border line, the careful adjustment of the sewing to the inner margin ensures continuity. Brinckmann points out that the Japanese, unlike many modern European printers, were never in the bad habit of inserting oblong pictures vertically in their books.2

The methods of producing the woodcuts are very similar to those formerly in vogue in Europe, the drawing in both cases remaining in high relief as the remainder of the block is cut away. Nowadays wood-engraving is usually treated like copper-engraving, and the lines of the drawing are incised. One essential difference, however, is this, that the Japanese never draw directly on the block itself, as was generally the case in Europe, but always make use of a sheet of thin or transparent paper, 1 Cf. Madsen, p. 7 ff. 2 Brinckmann, i. 222-25.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS n

which is then pasted face downwards on the block and furnishes the model for the wood-cutter to follow.

It has been much disputed whether the great European masters of wood -engraving, such as Dürer, Holbein, or Cranach, actually cut their own compositions ; but there is now a general agreement that they did not do so as a general rule. It is true that a few later artists, e.g. Livens in the Netherlands, and Gubitz, who revived wood-engraving in Germany, practised the art of wood-cutting themselves — were in fact, to use the technical term, “ peintres-graveurs ” ; but they were exceptions. In Japan not a single artist is known to have done his own cutting. They confined themselves to supervising and directing the wood-cutters, who in their turn carried out their employers’ intentions so skilfully, readily, and intelligently that the technical part of the process could be entrusted to their hands with perfect security.

Something more must be said about the drawing, in view of its importance for the quality of the finished product. The artist conveys it to the paper, not by means of a pen or pencil as in Europe, but by means of a brush, either in outlines of the utmost delicacy and precision, to be filled in with colour where needed, or else in broad masses which receive no further contour, but on the contrary are the embodiment of the greatest imaginable freedom of artistic touch.1 It is not necessary that the whole picture should be executed in either style throughout ; the central portions may be precisely outlined, while other parts are broadly sketched in ; indeed, this is more or less the general rule in the case of foliage, landscape background, and patterns on dresses. The style of precise contours is the traditional style, which was in vogue from the first beginnings of Japanese painting; the broader and sketchier manner is peculiar to the popular methods

1 For drawing and writing the brush is held almost upright between the fore and second fingers: the whole arm moves, not the wrist. Since Indian ink cannot be erased, the artist is compelled to work with the utmost care and precision.

of representation which have developed since the sixteenth century. Although the Chinese method of Indian ink washing and shading has been taken up by many Japanese, even by whole schools in former centuries, it has very naturally received no recognition in wood-engraving, to which it is not applicable. Since the third dimension is never represented in Japanese pictures, no opportunity offered in xylographic drawings for rendering it with the brush, which is peculiarly well adapted to such work. Nor again is the Japanese artist under any temptation to represent relief by parallel or cross hatching — a process which, as Brinckmann rightly points out, is no less completely conventional than any other ; only the reason lies not, as he supposes, in the use of the brush instead of a harder medium, for the Japanese with his brush can produce far finer and more uniform lines than the European draughtsman with his implements, as the absolute purity of Japanese outline conclusively proves. Rather is it the case that the Japanese has no occasion to employ strokes in this way. His attention being always concentrated on the decorative value of this design as a whole, what he principally aims at is, besides expressive contour, a suitable distribution and co-ordination of his colour-surfaces, more especially the proportion of dark, often unbroken black masses to lighter masses. Hatching, adds Brinckmann, is only found where the nature of the object to be rendered requires it, as in the case of a horse’s mane, a tiger’s skin, a peacock’s tail, or the bark of a tree-trunk. To indicate modelling within the contour of an object treated as simply black, it is usual to leave white lines within the black mass.