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The brilliant and intimately appealing art of the unido-e woodblock print is undoubtedly the most well-known of all Japanese arts. This particular style of art flourished in Japan from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century. The word Ukiyo-e was originally Buddhist and meant "sad world." By the seventeenth century, however, the meaning evolved to mean "floating world. " The "world" was one of transient pleasures and freedom from the cares and concerns of the world. The prints and paintings that the merchants commissioned and bought, almost always depicted aspects of a carefree existence, and were therefore called unido-e: "pictures of the floating world." To understand these prints, and gain respect for the art, we must understand something of the unido-e, or at least those aspects of it which the print-makers usually depicted: the theatre, life in the pleasure quarters, and travel.
In essence, Union-e reveals much of the rich history of Japan. During the sixteenth century in Japan, wars of between rivaling feudal lords came to an end and the country was unified. As a result, the traditional arts experienced a renaissance. The military class, the samurai, began to beautify their castles which, until then, had been little more than forbidding fortresses.
Painters and sculptors were hired to decorate the sliding doors, ceilings and wood panels while weavers and seamstresses were commissioned to produce beautiful clothes. Every form of art and craft was vitalized by the desire of the powerful samurai to make their lives as luxurious as possible. The great merchant families of the cities of Kyoto and Sakai, whose money had provided the samurai with guns and ammunition, also wanted to improve the quality of their lives. Since they were of a lower social order than the military, the merchants did not pretend to be interested in the aristocratic forms of art associated with members of the high culture. They commissioned paintings depicting pretty courtesans, visited the new Kabuki dances, and read popular books that were lavishly illustrated by hand. The demand for these illustrated manuscripts, however, became so great that they could no longer be made by hand.
Thus, the picture-book printed from cut wood was born. Although the technique of printing from wood books had been known in Japan for many centuries, and although Chinese printed books were quite common, the first Japanese illustrated book printed from wood blocks did not appear until around 1650 (the book was the Ise Monogatari, which is a traditional tale). The illustrations in such early printed books were crude and directly relevant to the text. Very soon, however, the pictures became more important and provided the masses with an affordable form of art (even those who were illiterate bought the books, for the sake of the pictures).
Around 1660 there were many illustrators working under contract for publishers in Japan's capital, Edo (present-day Tokyo). One of them, Hishikawa Moronobu, persuaded his publisher to issue illustrations as single sheets and without texts. These sold very well and from then on, woodblock prints as well as illustrated books were widely available to the public. He not only signed each print in the woodblock, but his signature announced to the world that he took himself seriously as an artist, that he was Yamato edo - master of Japanese painting.
In the sixteenth century, a group of entertainers, led by a woman, became popular in Kyoto. It specialized in dances performed by men masquerading as women, and women as men. Many such troupes soon emerged, some of which consisted only of women who were less interested in dancing than prostitution. The authorities soon prohibited them. The girls were then replaced by boys who, in turn, were also banned for the same reason. Finally, adult males took over, and they began to liven up the performances by acting out some of the popular stories of the day.
The result was the form of the Kabuki theatre, famous even today In the slang the time, Kabuki meant 'fashionable', and it is thought that the name Kabuki developed from it. The theatre was not only fashionable, but was also very popular, partly because it was the only outside entertainment to which respectable women might go. Not only the leisured wives and daughters of the merchants flocked to the theatre but, on the few free days, the ladies of the court went also. Some of these women were fortunate, or forward enough to have actors as lovers, but most of them had to settle for portrait-prints of their favorites.
Publishers were aware of this demand and hired artists to depict every aspect of life of the actor and the Kabuki theatre. They showed actors relaxing backstage, holding dramatic poses, or simply out taking a walk. They also produced single and group portraits. The theatre provided the print-makers with an endless supply of subjects, and they, in turn, boosted its popularity. There were, of course, as many male enthusiasts of the Kabuki as there were female ones. For the men, however, there was a more important place of entertainment - the brothel.
The craftsmen and merchants possessed enough money and time to allow them to live large parts of their lives with courtesans and prostitutes, and a large industry grew up to meet their needs. By 1627, all the whores and brothels in Edo had been concentrated in one place, the Yoshiwara, and were licensed for prostitution. After a disastrous fire in 1657, which virtually destroyed Edo and caused the city to be replaced and rebuilt, another district was specially cleared for prostitution and called the New Yoshiwara. It inspired many now-famous unido-e prints.
The most accomplished of the courtesans provided the print-makers with many of their subjects. Although prints of explicit sexual activity were popular, the courtesan was as frequently depicted showing off her extravagant kimonos, demonstrating the latest hairstyle and enjoying her seemingly leisured way of life. She was a star, and her portrait, bought by admirers and by those who wished they could afford her, increased the demand for her and the profits of her house. Once Hishikawa Moronobu had signed his prints and had called himself a master, other artists followed his example and, in true Japanese fashion, master-pupil relationships developed. Schools of print-making, each with its own style, emerged. They were known as families because the head pupil often married into his master's family and established a true blood relationship.
In the early eighteenth century families such as the Hishikawa (Moronobu's followers) the Torii (who specialized in actor prints) and the Kaigetsudo (masters of the full-lengths of beau...
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