Arts and Material Culture Summary 2.0
Concepts
Concept Description
Cultural democratisation Adoption of art and culture by townspeople to their taste. Everyone engages in deciding
what counts as culture, where it happens, who makes it, and who experiences it
Cultural renaissance A period of sustained creative activity by local artists working in a wide range of
disciplines in the literary, performing, and visual arts
Machishu Wealthy merchants. Rebellious and autonomous, do not like the Tokugawa.
Decorative arts Had strong motives, but still had meanings. Can not just say that because an artwork is
decorative, that it has no meaning,
Poem sheets (shikishi) Can be mounted on albums and other objects, the owner could do a lot with them. Very
versatile artworks
Lacquer Lacquer can be made any colour, usually the background is black, many layers and
take a long time to dry. Inlay lacquer with mother-of-pearl or blowing gold onto it.
Rinpa School A loose coalition of artists, no family ties necessarily. Identified with each other based
on self-chosen artistic orientation. Freely adapted and reinterpreted theme and styles of
previous artists
Patronised by empress Tofukumon’in.
Art shows people of the past.
Meisho-e Pictures of famous places, meisho
Ise Monogatari
Ukiyo-e Pictures of the floating world.
Floating world – both a fantasy and a real place, a world of leisure. Separating the world
of play from the world of work, Tokugawa Shogunate forced artists to designate these
two worlds. Mainly brothels, theatre districts and famous places, which were now
accessible to those who can afford it, before the modern period only certain social
statuses could attain them.
- why was the Tokugawa Shogunate okay with this? Urban entertainment goes against
the nature of Tokugawa control, as every class can attend and mingle, which they
actually wanted to keep apart. Even Tokugawa knew humans need some sort of
emotional release, and entertainment. Allowed dedicated district for entertainment to
rebellion
- customers were mainly samurai, as they mainly visited the brothels, a bit contradicting
as they wanted to keep people in control. Also wealthy merchants.
A focus on the people and customs of the present.
Not really a realistic depiction, more decorative and romanticised. Social realities for the
women in the brothels were different from how they were represented. people who lived
in that time knew the paintings were fake. Sort of propaganda for the floating world.
People justified it as the world of leisure where you leave your real persona behind.
Started as screens and hanging scrolls, from the second half of the 17th c. prints take
over. From the late 17th c. the start to circulate widely.
, - the point of the prints was to advertise the brothels, and show the floating world as
something positive contributing to society. But they were always from the perspective of
the customers not of the sex workers, their perspectives could obviously be different.
- show changing fashions, bijin and wakashu were trend setters. Complaints that people
started to look like sex workers as they followed the trends.
- also literary allusions to the court – people that were left out were the imperial court
and non-persons. Not bound by Confucian standards. Reference to the court also used
to show the floating world in a sophisticated light.
Kano School could not paint it, do not paint pictures of the present. Need specialised
painiters to see what is going on and reflect, which the Kano can not.
- tension between the elite/elegant and the popular/vulgar:
Elite/elegant popular/vulgar
- samurai/court - townspeople
- literary culture and elegant music - going to theatre and brothels
- compose poetry, study classic literature - reading popular novels and printed
- practise calligraphy books with illustrations
- painting for self-cultivation - go see/join in public spectacles/parades
- play elegant instrument (zither/koto)
Later on ukiyo-e became more portrait-like, no more background, only featuring the
actor or courtesan. Immediately when seeing the actor, people knew they were in a
kabuki stage or brothel, the background can be imagined. Ukiyo-e do not give all the
details, they should be imagined based on knowledge of the floating world. Early
images show the entire figure of someone, later on it became more portrait like
(introduced by the Dutch, seen as auspicious to cut someone in half)
Kabuki theatre First company, Okuni (former Shinto shrine dancer and prostitute) and a group of
female dancers, were seen as daring and not very proper. Poked fun at the elite.
At the beginning it was performed by female actors, who also earned some money by
sex labour, but there was the problem that the women got so popular and people
started to fight over them. So the Shogunate banned them from performing and
replaced them with wakashu (later also banned, but only after Shogun Iemitsu died who
favoured them, as they aroused homosexual passion).
From then only adult men kabuki, which facilitated onnogata → male performers
performing female roles
Officials hesitated to ban it entirely
-necessary outlet like floating world, even if it offended their Confucian ideals
- could not be completely eradicated, better to have some form of control over it
Called upon actors to make it their real job, instead of that being illegitimate sex
workers.
Kabuki became a more legitimate form of theatre, but the treatment of Tokugawa
probably prevented it from rising to a higher form of refinement.
Were the real heroes of the commoners, people that are celebrated. In terms of social
status they were basically outcasts, but prints glorified them almost as gods. Torii
School specialised in depicting these highlights of theatre scenes and highlighting the
actor.
The Kabuki aesthetic of ‘twisted poses’ – twisting bodies in unnatural poses during
performances. Also seen in the print of the Kabuki actress imitating/mocking the young
samurai leaning on their swords.
Bunraku Puppetry was first known in the Heian p. as kugatsu – wooden marionettes, feats of
magic, women sang, also flaunting their physical charm (proof to link between theatre
, and prostitution form earlier times on)
Storytelling was the most important, besides that there was musical accompaniment
and the use of puppets. It was a minor form of theatre. Many derived their stories from
war chronicles like the Heian Monogatari. The biwa was used, later on the samisen.
The samisen had a brittle twanging sound, making it perfectly suited for the vocal
techniques of the chanters. Became the principal instrument in the Tokugawa p. for both
bunraku and kabuki.
Bijin A beautiful person.
Important for pictures of the floating worlds, based on sex workers as they were not
considered proper people, almost outcast belonging to the four social status groups.
Possible to depict and show their faces to the public. From proper people it was
unacceptable to do so.
Wakashu Young handsome samurai, often teenage boys ranging from 7-17 years old. Were also
working as sex workers. Lot of ukiyo-e in 17th c pictures depict them as objects of
sexual desire.
Edo-e Play an important role for Edo to develop their own identity, give a feeling of a shared
identity. Were not just about the floating world, but also about celebrating the identity of
townspeople in Edo. Also project ideas and stimulate people's fantasies.
Edo was famous for their woodblock prints, their meibutsu.
Before, in Kyoto, the artist looked down on or pitied their subjects, in Edo they identified
themselves with them. Role of the images change.
Woodblock printing Was a collaborative artwork, not just the designer/artist. Carver, printer, publisher etc.,
but it often gets associated with just the artist. The publisher is actually the most
powerful, and decides what gets printed. Artists are basically commissioned. Also has
the copyright, and finances the project. For example Hokusai was not the one to decide
to make the Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji. The print shops are commercial, unlike in
Kyoto. Very modern, some artists also published their own work and advertised their
own work.
These prints also still depict an idealised vision, which was the function of these kinds of
prints, to show nice things and not reality. Around 1740 only two colour prints. To make
them interesting they use alot of perspective. Exaggerated vanishing point. Okumura
Masanobu was an artist that used this. Western technique. Purpose was not to make
them more realistic, but to make them more interesting and exotic. Often also combined
with the traditional perspective in emaki (slanting parallel line, no vanishing point).
Historical stories were added, comparison between the past and present – mitate, to
make the prints more interesting so that people would buy them.
Printing process:
- Artist (Designer) – produces a sketch, traditionally done in ink on paper
- Carver – carves the outlines of the sketch onto a woodblock, traditionally cherry
wood, recaptures the movement of the brush through carving
- Printer – prints the design onto paper with a baren (round tool for putting
pressure onto the paper)
Ehon Printed illustrated books
Nishiki-e Brocade (richly decorated) pictures, full-colour prints. Start in the late 1760s
Shunga Erotic pictures
Mitate-e Parody print. A contemporary equivalent substituted for classical subject matter. Later
on as people took more pride in their urban culture, secular and religious themes
became more satirical.
