Floating World

Japanese prints documenting life in the Edo period are on view at the Michener Museum in Doylestown.

By: Amy Brummer

"image"
"Bamboo


Bank, Kyobashi," by Utagawa Hiroshige.


    A woman splashes through the water on the back of a carp.
Lightning breaks over Mt. Fuji. Foxes gather to light a flame on New Year’s Eve.
Courtesans relax over a game of Go.
   Welcome to life during the Edo period in Japan.
   Beginning with the unification of Japan in 1615 and continuing
through the 1860s, Tokyo (Edo) became the economic and cultural center of the
country. To respond to the growing patronage of the arts by an expanding middle
class, publishers began producing woodblock prints that depicted the popular culture
of the times. Commonly referred to as ukiyo-e, "pictures of the floating world,"
they were filled with the delights of Japanese life — famous Kabuki actors,
well-known courtesans, tea houses, mythic scenes and, ultimately, the dramatic
landscape.
   As reproductions, the prints were relatively inexpensive, costing
about the same as a bowl of rice. But as they evolved over time and became increasingly
innovative and aesthetically sublime, artists such as Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa
Hiroshige emerged as significant contributors to both the arts of Japan and the
world at large.
   Recognizing the significant impact and the enduring virtuosity
of these works, James Michener became a devoted collector of these prints, amassing
more than 5,400 examples. He ultimately donated his collection to the Honolulu
Academy of the Arts, an institution that he became acquainted with during the
late 1950s while doing research on his novel Hawaii. Forty-four selections
from that collection are currently on view at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown,
Pa., through August.
   Assembled by Julia White, curator of Asian art at the Honolulu
Academy of Arts, the selections in the exhibit span the full range of the time
period, moving from black-and-white prints to hand-colored prints and the use
of block-printed color.
   "We wanted to bring prints that Michener had as a part of his
collection," Ms. White says, "and in some instances prints that he had commented
on in some of his own publications like ‘The Floating World.’ We tried to represent
a whole range, and with 44 prints that is not really easy to do, but we wanted
to give the flavor of the collection and show some of the stars of the collection,
which Hokusai and Hiroshige certainly are. Also, (we wanted) to take a look at
some of the actor prints that were a large part of printmaking in the Edo period."
   She likens the actor prints to advertisements for the Kabuki
plays, explaining that the actors became very famous for their roles, and the
way they were depicted in those roles became fairly well known.
   Although those depictions were standardized, the artists’ styles
maintained a strong individuality. Toshusai Sharaku’s 18th-century actor portraits
are tightly cropped images that are almost distorted by their animated largesse.
The actor portraits of Katsukawa Shunsho depict the actor on stage in the midst
of his dramatic expression and are marked by a narrow, vertical framing and warm
color palette.
   His color choices are reflective of the artist Suzuki Harunobu,
credited as the inventor of the polychrome print, wherein several woodblocks with
different colors were used to achieve a palette with up to 30 different shades.
Harunobu’s prints are recognizable for their soft colors and pale orange tones.
His subject matter is usually young women depicted with an airy freshness of eternal
youth.
   One example shows a woman playing the koto, a stringed instrument,
with writing materials and the necessary elements of a tea ceremony in the background.
All of these clues let the viewer know that she is well educated, probably belonging
to a high-ranking samurai family.
   "It is part of the charm in this print in that there is this
wonderful curvilinear line," Ms. White says. "It goes through the robe and it
is accentuated by her sleeve, which is extra long billowing out, which in actuality
probably gets in the way when you are playing koto, but the sense is that she
is like a musical note herself. And, the rigidity of the architecture behind her
sort of puts her on a scale so you are visually interpreting her as music."
   These subtle clues and unexpected depictions give the prints
an intriguing cultural depth. Japanese culture was virtually closed to Western
society until the mid-19th century. These prints open doors to the secret world
that played out behind closed doors.
   Ms. White points out Kitagawa Utamaro’s "Enjoying the Evening
Cool in a Flower Garden" as an example.
   "One of the things that is kind of unusual about it is that
often we see women depicted in prints or men depicted in prints," she says. "But
to have women interacting with men in the print is rather unusual. To have them
sort of lounging together having a smoke out in the flower garden is something
quite different in terms of interpretation of daily life. All of these prints
offer fabulous insights into the way people lived, how they dressed, the way they
interacted, and of course the popular culture comes out in the kinds of things
that they are doing and what was popular in current theater at the time."
   While these scenes were reflective of the ukiyo-e prints in
the 18th century, the genre would begin to include landscape images during the
turn of the century when Katsushika Hokusai began to produce his masterful landscapes.
His most famous series, "Thirty-six views of Mt. Fuji," depicts the sacred mountain
from several different angles and contexts. There are three examples from that
series in the exhibit. In one, it is shown as a force of nature, looming large
behind a crackling flash of lightning. In another, it peeks out from behind a
structure where men work sawing a log. The third print is a remote vision across
Lake Suwa, a distant reminder of a common geography swathed in tranquil serenity.
   "You see a lot of human activity," Ms. White says. "You see
a lot of animation in Hokusai’s prints with a little bit clearer definition of
human interests, what people are doing. They have real faces and expressions and
are in some ways sometimes a little bit of the comical side. But what is going
on around Fuji is what the series is all about. You see it from many different
angles, and almost always what Hokusai does in the series is get a glimpse of
Fuji through some other aspect."

"image"
"Rain


Beneeth the Summit," from the Thirthy-Six views of Mt. Fuji by Katsushika
Hohusai.


   She explains that all of the scenes were famous views and the
result of travels of the time. In some instances they almost served as a reminder
of a trip taken, much like a postcard for people who had heard of a place but
hadn’t been able to get there.
   While Hokusai is credited with introducing the landscape into
the genre, Utagawa Hiroshige’s work with this subject matter left a burning impression.
   A master colorist with a clean, bold style, Hiroshige’s landscapes
are deeply nuanced and complex, while maintaining a light, romantic air. There
are 13 examples of his work in the exhibit, with 10 of them taken from his famous
series, 100 Views of Edo, created in the 1830s.
   "They are very typically Hiroshige in that they are close-up
examinations of a scene in nature," Ms. White says. "Some of them seemed quite
natural choices in light of the Michener Museum’s interest in American art and
Impressionist art, most particularly this one, which is the grounds of the Kameido
Teijin Shrine. This is a place in downtown Tokyo that is famous for the fabulous
garden, and you can see Hiroshige was a master of pulling out the essentials of
the scene. The wisteria (is) hanging down in the foreground and the depth of the
scene (is) being created through the overlapping forms — this wonderful arched
bridge and, beyond it, people enjoying the garden. You are pulling tight into
the scene and defining the interior environment through the exterior scene."
   Ms. White believes this was one of the scenes thought to have
inspired some of the European Impressionists and gives the work a sense of belonging
in both worlds due to its impact. On one hand, Hiroshige is drawing on Western
conventions of perspective through his use of scale and layering. But his masterful
use of color, the gradation of a deep blue in the water and sky to create a sense
of perspective, combined with the golden aura emanating from the bridge, reflects
the dialogue between East and West.
   There is no question that this significance was not lost on
Mr. Michener. In his 1954 book, The Floating World, he writes, "I must
stress that Japanese prints are a joy. They will gladden the mind and quicken
the eye, and we Americans are very lucky that we own so many of them, for in the
long history of man’s persistent attempts to create beauty, these prints are one
of the gratifying successes."
Japanese Prints from the Michener Collection is on view at the James A. Michener
Art Museum, 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown, Pa., through August. Hours: Tues.-Fri.
10 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Wed. 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun. noon-5 p.m.
Admission costs $6, $5.50 for seniors, $3 students and children; free under age
6 and for members. For information call (215) 340-9800. On the Web: www.michenerartmuseum.org