The History of Japanese Print
- Ukiyo-e is literally "pictures of the floating world," and their subject matter is things that are fleeting and outside the mundane world: nature, the seasons and the world of geishas and kabuki theatre. The inexpensive mass-produced prints were a distraction from the harsh realities of daily life. By the 1700s, visitors to the cities could purchase woodcut prints of their favorite actors, a special teahouse or a beautiful geisha as a reminder of their visit.
- Buddhist scholars used woodcut printing to produce sacred texts and images as early as the 8th century. By the early 17th century, the literacy of a growing middle class created a demand for less scholarly books. Serial stories, travel guides and anecdotes about famous actors and courtesans were favorite topics. The texts were originally more important, but eventually the printed illustrations gained significant value.
- Early Japanese prints were strong linear black and white images. Around 1700, color was introduced. At first, the prints were colored by hand, using an orange-red paint; a rose pink, yellow, blue and green soon followed. In the 1740s, woodblocks were being printed with more than one color applied to the block. As designs became more intricate, prints required multiple blocks: up to 10 different color blocks might be used to create a single image. These prints are called nishiki-e; these are the ukiyo-e most often reproduced on postcards and calendars.
- The golden age of Japanese prints came at the turn of the 19th century. Artists and printers had mastered the medium and some of the finest works were produced. One of the most famous artists of that time is Katsushika Hokusai, whose Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji were published starting around 1831. Shortly after this, ukiyo-e fell out of fashion, and the prints were worth so little that they were used as packing material for trade goods headed to Europe. Once there, they became a source of inspiration for artists, such as Vincent van Gogh, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
- In the 20th century, ukiyo-e experienced a revival in the shin hanga and sōsaku hanga movements that sought to differentiate themselves from the tradition of commercial mass art. The process, however, remained the same. First the image was drawn onto washi, a thin translucent Japanese paper. The washi was glued to a cherry plank and the wood carved away, leaving only the lines of the image. Ink was applied to the remaining raised bits of wood, and paper was pressed onto the inked surface with a baren. Frames and other mechanisms were sometimes used, especially if there was more than one block involved in creating the image.