Ukiyo-e quire decir "imágenes de un mundo flotante" o "estampa de la vida que fluye". Dejando aparte las coincidencias semánticas de la traducción entre dos culturas con tan pocos puntos en común vamos a intentar, antes que nada, acercarnos al significado del mundo flotante o la vida que fluye para un japonés. ¿Qué significa un mundo flotante/vida que fluye para un japonés del floreciente Periodo Edo (1603-1867)? Imágenes de un mundo flotante. Imágenes de bellas mujeres. Imágenes de actores del kabuki. Imágenes de la lucha sumo. Imágenes del sintoísmo. Imágenes de la vida que fluye.
La estampa japonesa debe gran parte de su fama al ukiyo-e, aunque su historia arranca mucho má allà.
No estoy de acuerdo con Amaury García Rodríguez en el sentido de que las imágenes del ukiyo-e representan la cotidianeidad. Lo cotidiano creo que nunca puede ser el mundo flotante. Sin embargo, mi crítica no deja de ser arriesgada puesto que aún no tengo una definición convincente del significado de "mundo flotante". Mejor relaciono el mundo flotante con los placeres de la prostitución - las bellas mujeres son Geishas, los actores kabuki son prostitutos - unido a los placeres espirituales del sumo sintoísta, dentro del sincretismo que caracteriza la cultura japonesa.
Daniela Andrade se acerca un poco más a mi opinión sobre el mundo flotante: habla del "mundo de la distracción".
Katsusika Hokusai es nuestro personaje invitado de esta semana. Se trata del autor de ukiyo-e más conocido en occidente. Entre sus obras más conocidas destacan las de ambiente marino.
"A mediados del s. XIX sus grabados, así como los de otros artistas japoneses, llegaron a Paris. Allí eran coleccionados, especialmente por parte de artistas impresionistas de l atalla de Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas y Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, cuya obra denota una profunda influencia de los grabados mencionados (wiki).
El historiador Richar Douglas Lane ha escrito en Images from the floating World, The Japonese Print.
"The
Japanese art of Ukiyo-e developed in the city of Edo (now Tokyo)
during the Tokugawa or Edo Period (1615-1868). These two names refer
to the relatively peaceful 250 years during which the Tokugawa
shoguns ruled Japan and made Edo the shogunal seat of power.
The social hierarchy of the day, officially established by shogun rulers, placed the merchants, the wealthiest segment of the population, at the lower end of the scale. With their political power effectively removed, the merchant class turned to art and culture as arenas in which they could participate on an equal basis with the elite upper classes (warriors, farmers, and artisans). It was the collaboration among the merchants, artists, publishers, and townspeople of Edo that gave Ukiyo-e its unique voice. In turn, Ukiyo-e provided these groups with a means of attaining cultural status outside the sanctioned realms of shogunate, temple, and court.
Although Ukiyo-e was initially considered "low" art, by and for the non-elite classes, its artistic and technical caliber is consistently remarkable. Reading the images demands an extremely high level of visual, textual, and cultural literacy. From its earliest days, Ukiyo-e images and texts frequently referred to themes from classical, literary, and historical sources. At the same time, Ukiyo-e constantly expanded to reflect contemporary tastes, concerns, and innovations over the two and a half centuries of its development. The result was an art that was both populist (of and for the people, readily accessible, plentiful, affordable) and highly sophisticated. In summary, Ukiyo-e presented both the historical and all that was current, fashionable, chic, and popular. In the hands of the Ukiyo-e artist, the ordinary was transformed into the extraordinary." (see bellow exhibition).
Otros importantes personajes dentro del ukiyo-e son:
Yoshida Hanbei :
Hishikawa Morobonu:
Sugimura Jihei :
Hishikawa Morofusa :
Torii Kiyobonu :
Como se ve la mayoría de las xilografías representan escenas del llamado shunga art que las barrerras de carácter ético ha aislado de Occidente.
También el moku-hanga constituye una técnica japonesa ampliamente difundida en occidente - con este software puedes transformar tu foto en un grabado moku-hanga -. Del moku-hanga hablaremos otro viernes.
Bibliografía.-
Katherine L. Blood, James Douglas Farquhar, Sandy Kita and Lawrence E. Marceau. The Floating World of Ukiyo-e: Shadows, Dreams, and Substance. New York: Harry N. Abrams, in Association with the Library of Congress, 2001.
David Chibbett. The History of Printing and Book Illustration. Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International, 1977
Jack Ronald Hillier. The Art of the Japanese Book. London: Sotheby's Publications, 1987
Jack Ronald Hillier. The Japanese Picture Book. New York: Abrams, 1991
Sandy Kita, with contributions by Linda Batis, et al. A Hidden Treasure : Japanese Prints from the Carnegie Museum of Art. Pittsburgh: 1996
Tadashi Kobayashi. Translated by Mark A. Harbison. Ukiyo-e: An Introduction to Japanese Woodblock Prints. Tokyo, New York, London: Kodansha International, 1997
Peter Kornicki. The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. Leiden, Boston and Cologne: Brill, 1998
Richard Lane. Images from the Floating World: The Japanese Print. New York: G.P Putnam's Sons, 1978
Nishiyama Matsunosuke. Translated by Gerald Groemer. Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diversions in Urban Japan, 1600-1868. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997
Julia Meech and Gabriel P. Weisberg. Japonisme Comes to America: The Japanese Impact on the Graphic Arts, 1872-1925. New York: Abrams, 1990
Narazaki Muneshige. English adaptation by C.H. Mitchell. The Japanese Print: Its Evolution and Essence. Tokyo and Palo Alto: Kodansha International, 1966
Mya Thanda Poe, ed. Library of Congress Asian Collections: An Illustrated Guide. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 2000
La estampa japonesa debe gran parte de su fama al ukiyo-e, aunque su historia arranca mucho má allà.
No estoy de acuerdo con Amaury García Rodríguez en el sentido de que las imágenes del ukiyo-e representan la cotidianeidad. Lo cotidiano creo que nunca puede ser el mundo flotante. Sin embargo, mi crítica no deja de ser arriesgada puesto que aún no tengo una definición convincente del significado de "mundo flotante". Mejor relaciono el mundo flotante con los placeres de la prostitución - las bellas mujeres son Geishas, los actores kabuki son prostitutos - unido a los placeres espirituales del sumo sintoísta, dentro del sincretismo que caracteriza la cultura japonesa.
 |
| Katsushika Hokusai,1830, Kajikazawa in Kai Province (Kôshû Kalikazawa). |
Daniela Andrade se acerca un poco más a mi opinión sobre el mundo flotante: habla del "mundo de la distracción".
Katsusika Hokusai es nuestro personaje invitado de esta semana. Se trata del autor de ukiyo-e más conocido en occidente. Entre sus obras más conocidas destacan las de ambiente marino.
"A mediados del s. XIX sus grabados, así como los de otros artistas japoneses, llegaron a Paris. Allí eran coleccionados, especialmente por parte de artistas impresionistas de l atalla de Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas y Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, cuya obra denota una profunda influencia de los grabados mencionados (wiki).
El historiador Richar Douglas Lane ha escrito en Images from the floating World, The Japonese Print.
 |
| K: Hokusai, 1830-1833, La gran ola de Kanagawa. |
The social hierarchy of the day, officially established by shogun rulers, placed the merchants, the wealthiest segment of the population, at the lower end of the scale. With their political power effectively removed, the merchant class turned to art and culture as arenas in which they could participate on an equal basis with the elite upper classes (warriors, farmers, and artisans). It was the collaboration among the merchants, artists, publishers, and townspeople of Edo that gave Ukiyo-e its unique voice. In turn, Ukiyo-e provided these groups with a means of attaining cultural status outside the sanctioned realms of shogunate, temple, and court.
Although Ukiyo-e was initially considered "low" art, by and for the non-elite classes, its artistic and technical caliber is consistently remarkable. Reading the images demands an extremely high level of visual, textual, and cultural literacy. From its earliest days, Ukiyo-e images and texts frequently referred to themes from classical, literary, and historical sources. At the same time, Ukiyo-e constantly expanded to reflect contemporary tastes, concerns, and innovations over the two and a half centuries of its development. The result was an art that was both populist (of and for the people, readily accessible, plentiful, affordable) and highly sophisticated. In summary, Ukiyo-e presented both the historical and all that was current, fashionable, chic, and popular. In the hands of the Ukiyo-e artist, the ordinary was transformed into the extraordinary." (see bellow exhibition).
 |
| http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/ukiyo-e/intro.html |
Otros importantes personajes dentro del ukiyo-e son:
Yoshida Hanbei :
 |
| Yoshida Hanbei, 唐人抓耳図, Ritsumeikan University. |
Hishikawa Morobonu:
 |
| Hishikawa Morobonu, Koshoku ito Ynagi, British Museum |
Sugimura Jihei :
Hishikawa Morofusa :
 |
| Hishikawa Morofusa, 1686, Amantes. |
Torii Kiyobonu :
 |
| Torii Kiyobonu, 1710, Holding up both legs, Honolulu Museum of Art. |
Como se ve la mayoría de las xilografías representan escenas del llamado shunga art que las barrerras de carácter ético ha aislado de Occidente.
También el moku-hanga constituye una técnica japonesa ampliamente difundida en occidente - con este software puedes transformar tu foto en un grabado moku-hanga -. Del moku-hanga hablaremos otro viernes.
Bibliografía.-
Katherine L. Blood, James Douglas Farquhar, Sandy Kita and Lawrence E. Marceau. The Floating World of Ukiyo-e: Shadows, Dreams, and Substance. New York: Harry N. Abrams, in Association with the Library of Congress, 2001.
David Chibbett. The History of Printing and Book Illustration. Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International, 1977
Jack Ronald Hillier. The Art of the Japanese Book. London: Sotheby's Publications, 1987
Jack Ronald Hillier. The Japanese Picture Book. New York: Abrams, 1991
Sandy Kita, with contributions by Linda Batis, et al. A Hidden Treasure : Japanese Prints from the Carnegie Museum of Art. Pittsburgh: 1996
Tadashi Kobayashi. Translated by Mark A. Harbison. Ukiyo-e: An Introduction to Japanese Woodblock Prints. Tokyo, New York, London: Kodansha International, 1997
Peter Kornicki. The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. Leiden, Boston and Cologne: Brill, 1998
Richard Lane. Images from the Floating World: The Japanese Print. New York: G.P Putnam's Sons, 1978
Nishiyama Matsunosuke. Translated by Gerald Groemer. Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diversions in Urban Japan, 1600-1868. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997
Julia Meech and Gabriel P. Weisberg. Japonisme Comes to America: The Japanese Impact on the Graphic Arts, 1872-1925. New York: Abrams, 1990
Narazaki Muneshige. English adaptation by C.H. Mitchell. The Japanese Print: Its Evolution and Essence. Tokyo and Palo Alto: Kodansha International, 1966
Mya Thanda Poe, ed. Library of Congress Asian Collections: An Illustrated Guide. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 2000
