japan ukiyo e society (2 Ergebnisse)

Paperback. Zustand: Sehr gut. 30, 52, 98 p.: Ill. Die Seiten sind papierbedingt gebräunt, die Broschur löst sich leicht vom Buchrücken und ist ebenfalls tlw. ausgeblichen oder gebräunt. Sonst aber ein sauberes und gut erhaltenes Exemplar. Der Text ist teilweise auf Japanisch und teilweise auf Englisch geschrieben/ The pages are browned due to the paper, and the booklet is slightly detached from the spine and is also faded or browned in places. Otherwise, however, a clean and well preserved copy. The text ist written partly in japanese and partly in english. - ABOUT A CENTURY has elapsed since ukiyo-e emigrated from Japan and has become a matter of interest to the world at large. During this period many ukiyo-e prints have been sent abroad, where they have been highly appreciated and have had a remarkable influence upon some of the Western art. Many books both at home and abroad, beginning with Edmond de Goncourt's Outamaro (Paris, 1891) and Kyoshin Ijima's Katsushika Hokusai Den (Tokyo, 1893), have been published about ukiyo-e: to the end that ukiyo-e has become firmly set in the vision of world art. The time seems ripe now for scholars and collectors to come together and arrive at some conclusions about the fundamental research which has been made during the past century. One of the purposes of the Japan Ukiyo-e Society is to bring together Japanese and Western scholars and facilitate the exchange of information and views between them. Upon the occasion of the society's first major exhibition of ukiyo-e masterpieces, I would like to offer some opinions and tentative conclusions in regard to the history and essence of ukiyo-e. The origin and precise meaning of the word ukiyo-e have been the subject of much research and controversy, which is probably, in the final analysis, of rather small interest and importance. The word first appeared in a literary work published in 1681, and at that time there was a definite connotation that linked the word with the gay quarter at Yoshiwara. Some critics have held that ukiyo-e, in an exact sense, must be confined within the limits of the original definition. But most of us are willing to give it a wider meaning, and it may be noted that the ukiyo-e prototypes now being discovered and studied were not so limited in subject-matter and would come within the purview of a wider definition. An admirable median definition has been given by Sir George Sansom in his Japan: A Short Cultural History (New York, rev. ed., 1943, p. 474), as follows: The culture of the townspeople was essentially the culture of a prosperous bourgeoisie devoted to amusement. Their arts centred round what was called in the current language of the day Ukiyo or the 'Floating World.' This is the world of fugitive pleasures, of theatres and restaurants, wrestling-booths and houses of assignation, with their permanent population of actors, dancers, singers, story-tellers, jesters, courtesans, bath-girls and itinerant purveyors, among whom mingled the profligate sons of rich merchants, dissolute samurai and naughty apprentices. It is chiefly the life of these gay quarters and their denizens which is depicted in popular novels and paintings of the day, the ukiyo-soshi and the ukiyo-e, the sketch-books and the pictures of the floating world. Some sketchy outlines for a history of ukiyo-e were provided by Ota Nampo and other writers in the Ukiyo-e Ruiko, starting around 1800, but these efforts were rather desultory and were not guided by any real historical sense. Ukiyo-e scholarship in Japan cannot be said to have started until the Meiji era. For a long time this scholarship has been plagued by fables and old wives' tales. Within living memory some scholars have believed that Matabei was the founder of ukiyo-e. Others have held that the Otsu-e folk paintings were direct forerunners of the ukiyo-e prints. And there are still many who believe that ukiyo-e appeared suddenly and miraculously in the 17th century, without any apparent antecedent or origin, in the person of Hishikawa Moronobu. Certain investigations are now being centered on the genre art which preceded ukiyo-e, and we are beginning to see that ukiyo-e, instead of being a neatly defined body of art extending from such-and-such a date to such-and-such a date, comprising certain works by certain artistsis, in fact, but one aspect of a much broader concept of Japanese plebian art. Probably not until we have devoted much more study to the larger concept of plebian art can we arrive at a better understanding of ukiyo-e itself. Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 550.

Illustrated paper wrappers. First edition. 30, 52, 98 pp. Illus. with 6 color plates + 321 b/w reproductions. Sm. 4to. Shigeo Miyao, ed. Errata slip tipped in. Catalogue of 321 prints in English and Japanese. 8 pages of ads. Glossary. Chip at the head of the spine else a very good copy.