RON HENGGELER

May 25, 2024
Japanese Prints in Transition at the Legion of Honor

Part 1 

From the Floating World to the Modern World

Thoughtfully designed and carefully executed, yet inexpensive and widely accessible, woodblock prints flourished in Japan between the Edo period(1603-1868) and the early Meiji era (1868-1912).

In 1603, Japan's imperial court named Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616) shogun-military dictator and de facto ruler-ushering in a 250-year period of peace and economic prosperity. He established an administrative center in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and enacted isolationist, protective policies that limited foreign trade and Western influence. To further preserve order, most of Japanese society was divided into four classes: warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants.

Despite having the lowest social status, merchants prospered financially, gaining access to education and the ability to purchase luxury goods. As Edo culture began to recognize the rising merchant class, aspects of their leisure became the dominant subject matter of woodblock prints. These delicately colored images of captivating subjects, including Kabuki actors, landscapes, and prostitutes and courtesans of the pleasure quarters, helped establish a new category of art called ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world." Originally a Buddhist term referring to the transitory realm of desire and suffering, "the floating world" came to describe the fleeting indulgences of urban life.

In 1868, the long-reigning Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown and rule of the country was returned to the imperial throne with the installation of Emperor Meiji (1852-1912). Meiji's imperial court ended feudal rule and opened Japan's borders to foreign trade, promoting a new vision of a modern Japan informed by Western principles and capable of operating on the global political stage. Woodblock prints became an influential tool for communicating the government's agenda. The ensuing changes in dress, infrastructure, and technology, along with a wealth of new synthetic pigments introduced via trade with foreign countries, presented artists with thrilling new subjects and introduced consumers to images of the modern world captured in vivid colors.

The artworks featured in Japanese Prints in Transition: From the Floating World to the Modern World are seldom on view due to their extreme sensitivity to light. Drawn entirely from the collection of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, these prints expressively describe a dynamic period of transition in Japanese history. The exhibition culminates with a selection of prints by the contemporary Japanese American artist Masami Teraoka (b. 1936), who grapples with American pop culture's widespread influence through the lens of ukiyo-e, demonstrating the enduring relevance of the woodblock-print medium.

As the style and subject matter of Japanese woodblock prints developed, so too did the tools and materials used to make them. In the Edo period (1603-1868), the early practice of coloring prints by hand evolved into a sophisticated system for printing multicolored compositions from several woodblocks.

In the Meiji era(1868-1912), an increased exchange of goods and ideas with the West gave rise to new colorants and carving tools. Amid these transformations, certain techniques endured: blended gradients of color, blind embossing additions of mica and metallic pigments, and highlighting the carved block's natural wood grain. Material hallmarks of the medium-including cherrywood, translucent rice starch, and strong mulberry paper-were sourced from the country's landscape, ensuring that woodblock printing remained a distinctly Japanese art form during a period of transition.

Torii Kiyoshige (active 1720-1764)
Somekawa Kozöshi and Ichikawa Danjurõ Il as a Merchant Trying to Seduce a Young Girl, ca. 1720-1729
Hand-colored woodblock print with metallic pigment and lacquer

Toshusai Sharaku (active 1794-1795)
The Actor Ichikawa Danjurõ VI as Fuwa Bansaku in the Play "Kasei sanbon karakasa," from an untitled series of portraits of actors with yellow backgrounds, 1794
Color woodblock print

Toshusai Sharaku (active 1794-1795)
The Actor Sakata Hangorõ Ill as Fujikawa Mizuemon in the Play
"Hana ayame Bunroku Soga," Miyako Theater, from an untitled series of half-length portraits of actors, 1794
Color woodblock print with mica and lacquer

During his brief but active ten-month career, Toshusai Sharaku created around 150 designs for woodblock prints, almost exclusively featuring Kabuki actors.
This print is from a set of twenty-eight large, close-up portraits depicting men who performed at Edo's three leading theaters.

Unlike his contemporaries, who idealized their subjects, Sharaku's stylized portraits bordered on caricature. They are bold, expressive, and charged with emotional intensity, seen here in the actor's angled eyebrows, crossed eyes, emphatic frown, and jutting chin. The artist achieved the shimmering background, a distinct feature of all the portraits in this series, by adding mica, a soft mineral that flakes easily, to the wet ink.

Unidentified Edo artist (active mid-19th century)
Female Admirers Weeping before a Large Memorial Portrait of the Actor Ichikawa Danjurõ VIII, 1856
Color woodblock print

Detail of:

Female Admirers Weeping before a Large Memorial Portrait of the Actor Ichikawa Danjurõ VIII, 1856
Color woodblock print

Shunkösai Hokushú (active 1808-1832)
The Actor Nakamura Utaemon III as Ishikawa Goemon, Disguised as the Farmer Gosaku, 1830
Color woodblock print with traces of mica

Hirosada Konishi (d. 1864)
The Actor Nakamura Shikan II as
Ki no Haseo, from an untitled series of bust portraits of actors, 1841
Color woodblock print with mica and burnishing

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)
Snowy Morning, from the series Among Snow, Moon, and Flowers, one sheet from a triptych, ca. 1847-1848
Color woodblock print

Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825)
The Actor Nakamura Nakazo Il as Kudo Suketsune in the Play
"Furiwakegami aoyagi Soga," from an untitled series of portraits of actors, 1796
Color woodblock print

Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825)
The Actor Ichikawa Danjurõ Vl as a Nobleman, from an untitled series of half-length portraits of actors, 1796
Color woodblock print with mica

The most influential artist and leader of the Utagawa school-a prominent lineage of Edo-period print designers-Utagawa Toyokuni specialized in theatrical subjects. Although many of his Kabuki prints feature actors in standing poses, in the mid-1790s, the artist also produced numerous okubi-e (close-up head portraits), such as this image of Ichikawa Danjurõ VI(1778-1799) adorned in red kumadori (stage makeup), symbolizing heroism and strength.

A promising young performer and member of a theatrical family dynasty, Danjuro died unexpectedly of a sudden illness before reaching his prime. He garnered immense fame despite his short career, and his portrait was in high demand. Prints such as this acted as souvenirs, allowing admirers to relive the thrill of the performance and feel personally connected to a Kabuki star.

Detail of: The Actor Ichikawa Danjurõ Vl as a Nobleman, from an untitled series of half-length portraits of actors, 1796
Color woodblock print with mica

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)
Snowy Morning, from the series Among Snow, Moon, and Flowers, one sheet from a triptych, ca. 1847-1848
Color woodblock print

Kikukawa Eizan (1787-1867)
Yosooi of the Matsubaya, from the series Three Wine Cups in the New Yoshiwara, 1815-1825
Color woodblock print with burnishing

Detail of: Yosooi of the Matsubaya, from the series Three Wine Cups in the New Yoshiwara, 1815-1825
Color woodblock print with burnishing

Kitagawa Tsukimaro
(active ca. 1800-1818, d. 1830)
The Courtesan Takao Entertaining the Actors Sawamura Gennosuke and Iwai Kiyotaro at the Miuraya, ca. 1805
Color woodblock triptych print with embossing

Stars collide in this sumptuous triptych depicting a woman at center left-one of eleven generations of high-ranking prostitutes who all chose the honorary name Takao-in the company of two famous Kabuki actors, Sawamura Gennosuke (active 1791-1811; center right) and Iwai Kiyotaro (active 1787-1804; lower right).

Dressed in a splendid kimono with an elegant coiffure adorned with long hairpins, and accompanied by lower-ranking prostitutes and fine foods, she seems an emblem of beauty surrounded by the trappings of luxury. Live musicians serenade the trio to welcome in the New Year.

Detail of: The Courtesan Takao Entertaining the Actors Sawamura Gennosuke and Iwai Kiyotaro at the Miuraya,

ca. 1805

Detail of: The Courtesan Takao Entertaining the Actors Sawamura Gennosuke and Iwai Kiyotaro at the Miuraya,

ca. 1805

Detail of: The Courtesan Takao Entertaining the Actors Sawamura Gennosuke and Iwai Kiyotaro at the Miuraya, ca. 1805

Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770)
Osen Playing with a Cat Held by a Visitor to Her Tea Shop, ca. 1768-1770
Color woodblock print

Featured in more than forty designs by Suzuki Harunobu, Kasamori Osen (1751-1827) was one of the most celebrated beauties in Edo during the 1760s.
In addition to being depicted in woodblock prints, she was featured in books, portrayed in the Kabuki play Kaidan tsuki no Kasamori, and even immortalized as a doll. She worked as a waitress in her father's tea shop near the entrance to Edo's Kasamori Inari Shrine until she eloped with a samurai, with whom she had nine children. Here, during a quiet moment at the shop, she teases a cat with the end of her obi (wide belt).

Detail of: Osen Playing with a Cat Held by a Visitor to Her Tea Shop,

ca. 1768-1770

Kikukawa Eizan (1787-1867)
Woman Writing a Letter, from the series Elegant Pictures with Birds and Flowers for the Five Seasons, ca. 1810-1815
Color woodblock print

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)
Tama River at Mount Koya (Courtesan Smoking a Pipe), from an untitled series of the six Tama Rivers, ca. 1796-1798
Color woodblock print with embossing

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)
Wife of a Virtuous Man, from the series Ten Beautiful Faces, ca. 1797-1800
Color woodblock print

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)
The Self-Possessed Type, from the series A Parent's Moralizing Spectacles, ca. 1798-1802
Color woodblock print

Kitagawa Utamaro distinguished himself from other bijinga artists through his attentive renderings of women's physiognomy. In his series A Parent's Moralizing Spectacles, the artist reflects on what he perceives as the moral decline of contemporary women through ten images, each focused on a character trait and coupled with text written from the perspective of a parent.

The young woman in The Self-Possessed Type diligently practices the noble art form of calligraphy but, according to the print's text, she hides her character flaws behind a facade of propriety-so the artist considers her more deceitful than the rest.
The title of each print in the series appears within a pair of spectacles, signifying that each woman is being scrutinized closely, echoing the patronizing gaze of the male artist within a patriarchal society.

Detail of: The Self-Possessed Type, from the series A Parent's Moralizing Spectacles,

ca. 1798-1802

Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770)
The Descending Geese of the Koto Bridge, from the series Eight Parlor Views, 1766
Color woodblock print

Riddled with allusions, Suzuki Harunobu's series Eight Parlor Views is part of a subgenre of ukiyo-e called mitate-e, often translated as "look and compare" pictures, most closely described in English as parody.
Riffing off a well-known motif within Chinese art called the "Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang," this series transforms imagery evocative of the original landscape subjects into interior scenes.
In this print, two elegantly dressed prostitutes rendered in delicate flowing lines sit on either side of a koto, a traditional Japanese string instrument.
The work's title comes from the koto's bridges, which support the strings and are visually reminiscent of a flock of geese descending over a sandbank. Eight Parlor Views also provides some of the earliest examples of nishiki-e, full-color prints.

Detail of:

The Descending Geese of the Koto Bridge, from the series Eight Parlor Views, 1766

Beauties - The Complexities of Bijinga

Bijinga-"pictures of beautiful people," predominantly women-proliferated during the Edo period and were among the most popular of ukiyo-e genres. The primary subjects of these images were oiran (sometimes called courtesans)-skilled entertainers and the highest-ranking prostitutes in Yoshiwara, Edo's licensed brothel quarter. This red-light district two miles outside the city was a significant cultural center that played host to intellectuals, samurai, and wealthy merchants alike.

Aspirants to the rank of oiran trained from a young age in a range of skills, including calligraphy, conversation, and tea ceremony rituals. Depicted in prints and paintings by leading artists, these women, a few of whom remain known by name today, became paragons of style. To attract the wealthiest of patrons, they dressed in the finest fabrics and fashions. Despite the fame and finery achieved by some oiran, life for prostitutes of all ranks was complex and, for many, brutal; most were sold into indentured servitude as children and exploited, starved, and mistreated throughout their lives, while some went bankrupt to maintain their stylish appearance.

By the early nineteenth century, people of all social ranks were consuming bijinga, which in turn grew to include images of everyday young women, housewives, and lower-ranking prostitutes.

Detail of:

The Descending Geese of the Koto Bridge, from the series Eight Parlor Views, 1766

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)
The Chiyozuru Teahouse-Orise, from an untitled series of teahouses and teahouse waitresses, ca. 1794-1795
Color woodblock print

Isoda Koryusai (1735-1790)

Autumn, from the series Elegant Colors of the Four Seasons, ca. 1770-1774
Color woodblock prints with embossing

THE VIEW FROM EDO
THE LANDSCAPE TRADITION
IN UKIYO-E
In the late eighteenth century, in response to increased leisure travel among the merchant class and renewed enthusiasm for picturesque sites in and around Edo, landscape emerged as a new genre in ukiyo-e. Timeless landscapes also offered a compelling alternative to images of Kabuki actors and beautiful women, whose popularity rose and fell. With its natural vistas, historic sites, and urban scenes, Edo and its surroundings are the subject of some of the most recognizable and cherished images in the history of art, chief among them Katsushika Hokusai's Under the Wave off Kanagawa (ca. 1830-1832; on view nearby), also known as The Great Wave.

Many of the prints in this section reflect the Western artistic influences that first began to manifest in the country's culture in the years preceding the Meiji Restoration (1868).
These influences resulted in significant innovations in the landscape genre, such as the rise of uki-e, or perspective prints, and the incorporation of transformative new pigments, such as Prussian blue.

Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814)
The Cool of the Evening near Ryogoku Bridge in Edo, from the series Perspective Pictures ca. 1770-1780
Color woodblock print

Utagawa Toyoharu, founder of the Utagawa school, specialized in group scenes and perspectival land-scapes, the latter making him the most significant precursor to revolutionary landscape artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).
In this uki-e, or perspective print, the artist combines these skills, depicting a cool evening on the Sumida River near Edo's Ryögoku Bridge. The fireworks in the sky signify the opening of the summer boating season, an annual tradition that continues today. In the fore-ground, pleasure boats filled with onlookers fade into the horizon at left, while a small village converges at a point at right, much like a two-point perspective drawing. The olive-yellow sky would have once been blue; made with the delicate pigment dayflower, it has faded over time due to light exposure and moisture.

Detail of: The Cool of the Evening near Ryogoku Bridge in Edo, from the series Perspective Pictures

ca. 1770-1780

Detail of: The Cool of the Evening near Ryogoku Bridge in Edo, from the series Perspective Pictures

ca. 1770-1780

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)
Pleasure Boat and Fireworks on the Sumida River, from the book The Pillowed Boudoir, 1839
Color woodblock print

Detail of: Pleasure Boat and Fireworks on the Sumida River, from the book The Pillowed Boudoir

1839

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Cherry Blossoms at Night at Nakanoch in the Yoshiwara, from the series Famous Places in the Eastern Capital, ca. 1834-1835
Color woodblock print

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Gion Shrine in the Snow, from the series Famous Places in Kyoto, ca. 1834
Color woodblock print

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Nihonbashi in Snow, from the series Famous Places in the Eastern Capital, ca. 1843-1846
Color woodblock print

Detail of: Nihonbashi in Snow, from the series Famous Places in the Eastern Capital,

ca. 1843-1846

Utagawa Hiroshige II (1826-1869)
Kintai Bridge at Iwakuni in Suò Province, from the series One Hundred Famous Places in the Provinces, 1859
Color woodblock print with embossing and mica

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892)
Black Monster Attacking a Carpenter's Wife, from The Postal News, 1875
Color woodblock print

Selections from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830-1832

Comprising nearly every imaginable view of Mount Fuji, Katsushika Hokusai's groundbreaking series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji-which actually encompasses forty-six prints total-confirmed landscape as an independent genre in ukiyo-e and was the pinnacle of the artist's successful career. An avid draftsman, curious student, and keen observer of the natural world, the artist trained under numerous masters and studied the few Western prints and paintings that were then available in Japan through trade with the Dutch.
Under the Wave off Kanagawa represents one of the most successful early fusions of traditional Japanese art with Western materials and compositional techniques, while Fuji in Clear Weather masterfully demonstrates bokashi-the skillful application of a gradation of ink by hand to a moistened woodblock. Many of the series' lesser-known prints are distinguished by the artist's sharp observations of routine daily activities contrasted with the beauty of nature.
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)
Color woodblock prints

Yoshida on the Tokaido

from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830-1832

Storm below the Mountain

from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830-1832

Fuji from the Sazai Hall at the Temple of the Five Hundred Rakan

from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830-1832

Fuji from the Hongan Temple at Asakusa in Edo

from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830-1832

Under the Wave off Kanagawa

from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830-1832

Fuji from beneath Mannen Bridge in Fukagawa

from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830-1832

Fuji in Clear Weather (Red Fuji)

from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830-1832

Fuji from Surugadai in Edo

from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830-1832

Sea Route off the Shore of Kazusa Province

from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830-1832

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)

A Daimyo Procession Setting Forth from Nihonbashi from the series Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, ca. 1833-1834
Color woodblock print

Detail of:

A Daimyo Procession Setting Forth from Nihonbashi from the series Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, ca. 1833-1834
Color woodblock print

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892)
A Moonlight Scouting Patrol, from the series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, 1885
Color woodblock print with burnishing and embossing

The pinnacle of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's late career comprised two print series, including One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, published in batches between 1885 and 1892. The series features subjects from Japanese and Chinese folklore, theater, history, literature, and contemporary life visually linked together by the leitmotif of the moon. Each design is a testament to the artist's rich imagination and exquisite draftsmanship, while breathtaking passages of bokashi-subtle gradations of pigment-affirm the printer's technical skill. This print from the series depicts the samurai general Saito Toshimitsu (1534-1582) surveying the horizon from the Kamo River under a full moon.
Other works from this series are on view in nearby galleries.

Women Accosting Travelers at Goyu from the series Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, ca. 1833-1834
Color woodblock print

Partly inspired by Katsushika Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (ca. 1830-1832), Utagawa Hiroshige's series of scenes of the Tökaido-the important Eastern Sea Road that connected Edo and the imperial city of Kyoto-elevated his reputation beyond Hokusai's as a landscape artist.
It was customary for the shogunate to send the emperor an annual gift of horses, and, one summer, Hiroshige was appointed to accompany this dele-gation. This series lyrical images, taken from sketches made during the artist's travels, capture the realities of life along the road.

Utagawa Hiroshige

The Plum Orchard at Kameido, 1857

Selections from the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1856-1858

Utagawa Hiroshige designed the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edoreferred to in its table of contents as his "grand farewell performance"— in the final years of his life, after he became a Buddhist monk. Representing culturally significant places of pleasure and respite, such as Edo's theater district (Saruwaka-machi) and a snow-covered Buddhist temple (Kinryuzan Sensöji), the series captures the spirit and appearance of Edo before it became industrialized. Following centuries-old Japanese convention, the meisho, or famous places, are each associated with a season, often determined by what time of year people traditionally visit a site, or by literary or religious significance.

This series is remarkable for its brilliant palette yet overall somber mood, possibly mirroring Hiroshige's own feelings at the time. His novel vertical format occasionally omits Western linear perspective in favor of inventive compositional motifs, demonstrated by the playful cropping of Naito, New Station at Yotsuya. He also altered actual geography for greater visual impact, as seen in Tow Boats on the Canal by the Yotsugi Road, which transforms the straight canal into a winding waterway.

Utagawa Hiroshige

Tow Boats on the Canal by the Yotsugi Road, 1857

Selections from the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1856-1858

Utagawa Hiroshige

Edo Bridge from Nihon Bridge, 1857

Selections from the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1856-1858

Utagawa Hiroshige

Evening Rain at Atake on the Great Bridge, 1857

Selections from the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1856-1858

Utagawa Hiroshige

Naito, New Station at Yotsuya, 1857

Selections from the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1856-1858

Utagawa Hiroshige

Night View of Saruwaka Street, 1856

Selections from the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1856-1858

Utagawa Hiroshige

Kinryzan Temple in Asakusa, 1856

Selections from the series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1856-1858

Detail of: Kinryzan Temple in Asakusa, 1856

The artworks featured in Japanese Prints in Transition: From the Floating World to the Modern World are seldom on view due to their extreme sensitivity to light.

Drawn entirely from the collection of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, these prints expressively describe a dynamic period of transition in Japanese history. The exhibition culminates with a selection of prints by the contemporary Japanese American artist Masami Teraoka (b. 1936), who grapples with American pop culture's widespread influence through the lens of ukiyo-e, demonstrating the enduring relevance of the woodblock-print medium.

Japanese Prints in Transition: From the Floating World to the Modern World

April 6 – August 18, 2024

Legion of Honor