Prints 11


FINE JAPANESE ART Thursday 9 November 2017 New Bond Street, London


more commonly as triptychs depicting a specific scene from a specific play with several actors – his most common milieu. Kuniyoshi is not known for this and his triptychs are almost always devoted to scenes from historic battles or the supernatural phenomena which course through Japanese culture. Another specialty of Kunisada’s was the coverage of the latest fashions among women, a subject as important then as it is today. Towards the end of the exhibition is a fitting closure, a poignant memorial portrait of Kunisada I by Kunisada II depicting his Master seated on a mat in a simple kimono holding a rosary. Both Kuniyoshi and Kunisada began their careers as students of Toyokuni I. Kunisada, 10 years older than Kuniyoshi,


began his


apprenticeship around 1801 at the age of fifteen while Kuniyoshi began his in 1811, also at the age of fifteen. From the very beginning Kunisada was considered an enfant savant while, some ten years later, Kuniyoshi was not, but they both began being put to work designing book illustrations (ehon). Next came designs for bijin-e or pictures of beautiful women and their results reflected new way of depicting them – some full-length and some half-length, all very much in the new, bolder style than that of the preceding masters. Te period of about 1812 through the late 1820s was dominated by this bold and sometimes excessive style. From 1818 through 1827,


Kuniyoshi produced only a few ehon, actor prints and bijin-e because he was receiving almost no commissions from publishers. He had been so reduced in state that he was forced to sell his tatami mats in order to eat. 1827 proved to be a turning point in his career when, much by accident, he met Kunisada. Te highly successful actor, fully aware of Kuniyoshi’s plight, entreated him to renew his efforts to have his designs accepted by the publishers. Armed with his newly found determination and a number of new designs, his career skyrocketed and it not long before he also became wildly popular. His designs differed greatly from Kunisada’s palette of actors, bijin-e and wrestlers as they tended toward dynamics, such as battle scenes,


monsters, the


supernatural, always a big draw in Japanese culture,


and tattooed


warriors from tales of classical heroes. He had a quirky and compulsive side with his prints of cats and cats as kabuki actors, peculiar depictions of people and occasionally his cleverly disguised, but still dangerous, political satires.


He did not restrict himself to independent single-sheet prints or triptychs of the normal subject matter, but produced series of prints in the 1830s of landscapes, very much in the tradition of Hokusai. Besides Life of Nichiren, he also created Tirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji, following Hokusai’s example, and Famous Products of the Provinces, in which he incorporated Western perspective and shading. Tese were probably derived from European prints imported by the Dutch to their trading station at Deshima. Also at this early period he produced wonderful prints of birds and animals executed on connected


vertical sheets (kakemono-e) for maximum impact. Tese were designed along the lines of the Nanga School of painting which took its inspiration from Chinese landscapes and depictions of birds and animals. It was in the 1840s that he turned his attention to actor and ‘action’ prints, especially in triptych format. Whereas Kunisada created triptychs of actors, almost all of Kuniyoshi’s triptychs were either battle scenes, both on land and sea, or scenes of the supernatural. Tales of the supernatural were standard fare in Japanese mythology and folk belief and many of these creatures were depicted in so many forms: horned demons, giant spiders, foxes disguised as beautiful women as well as a coterie of imaginary beings that remind one of the opening line of that old Scottish prayer, ‘…from ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night …’. After his death, Kuniyoshi left behind his six pupils, independent artists: Yoshitora,


now Yoshiiku,


Yoshitoshi, Yoshikazu,


Yoshitsuya, and Yoshifuji. With the sole exception of Yoshitoshi,


the


remainder followed the downhill path to the end of traditional ukiyo-e – more complicated compositions and flashy decorations of a horror vacui nature,


replete with the abrasive


colours created by the chemical aniline dyes imported from Germany. Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was the lone exception. He and Kuniyoshi shared a deep taste for the macabre and the supernatural with


Yoshitoshi


following that direction, even in his early years; many of his prints were delicate and sublime, but most were not. His draftsmanship was superb, to the extent that the precision of the lines absolutely captured the emotions of the person or supernatural being depicted. Kuniyoshi himself was a great fan of his, but he could not have imagined where this direction would lead. In 1885, Yoshitoshi produced an iconic kakemono-e print entitled Te Lonely House on Adachi Moor. It depicts a truly horrible subject, but it has been strongly sought after ever since because of the sheer quality of line and composition. Te scene depicts the interior of a decrepit old farmhouse. A young woman is heavily pregnant, nude above the waist. She has been bound and gagged and suspended from the rafters by a rope tied to her ankles. Just in front of her, sitting on the floor is an ancient hag who stares intently at the terrorised woman as she sharpens a knife. Te scene sums up the last stroke of genius of the last member of the Utamaro tradition. No gore is depicted, only that immediate time just before, the result of a brilliant and highly sophisticated artist.


Both


Yoshitoshi – and ukiyo-e – died on June the 9th, 1892.


Tis most excellent exhibition will make its point about Kunisada and Kuniyoshi and will rouse interest in the much wider world of classical Japanese prints. And the question as to who wins this competition will be left entirely up to the personal tastes of the viewer. If you’d like to vote, go to the museum’s website to take part. Until 10 December, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, mfa.org. A catalogue by accompanies the exhibition, US$50


CHINA


Buddha, Northern Qi Period 550-577 Marble


H: 29 ½ in. bonhams.com/japanese


A FINE AND EARLY CLOISONNÉ-ENAMEL VASE (detail) By Namikawa Yasuyuki (1845-1927)


Meiji era (1868-1912) 21.5cm high (8½in) £20,000 - 30,000


ENQUIRIES London


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OCTOBER 2017 ASIAN ART


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