JAPANESE PRINTS
A MILLION QUESTIONS
TWO MILLION
MYSTERIES
Ukiyo-e Prints
浮世絵版画
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Port Townsend, Washington |
TSURUYA KOKEI
弦屋光渓
つるやこうけい
Born 1946 |
Portrait of
Ichimura Uzaemon XVII as Seno Jurō Kaneuji |
市村羽左衛門十七代目
いちむらうざえもんじゅうしちだいめ |
瀬尾十郎兼氏
せんおじゅうろうかねうじ |
From the play Genpei
Nunobiki no Taki |
"The Genji and Heike at
Nunobiki Waterfall"
源平布引瀧
げんぺいぬのびきのたき |
Printed on Tosa ganpi paper
made in Kochi Prefecture |
Blocks carved from Magnolia obovata (Thun.) |
Number 65 of
an edition of 90 |
Seal: "A work by Kokei, 90
impressions"
Listed as seal 36 |
1995,
11th Month
Heisei 7
平成7 |
15 1/2"
x 10" |
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$740.00
NO LONGER AVAILABLE! |
The term
Genpei
(源平
or げんぺい) means
the Heike and Genji clans or two opposing sides. |
Nunobiki (布引 or ぬのびき) means
stretching of cloth, but here is a place name. Some sources say that this
waterfall got its name because of its
similarity to a stretched piece of cloth. A view of the falls gives total
credence to this concept. |
Taki ( 瀧 or たき )
means waterfall |
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Frontal
View |
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Rear View |
Printed right above the figures right
shoulder is the number 156.
This was to indicate that this was the
artist's 156th design. |
KOKEI AND HIS ART |
Kokei mastered two separate aspects of Japanese prints: one was the
traditional okubi-e
(大首絵 or
おくびえ) or large portrait
head and the other was the production of sosaku
hanga (創作版画 or
そうさくはんが)
or creative print. Born in 1946 he began his artistic career at the
age of 32 and retired twenty-two years later in 2000.
Like artists everywhere his success was slow in coming. It wasn’t
until some years after he began selling his images at the Kabuki-za (歌舞伎座 or
かぶきざ) in
Tokyo
that his success was assured.
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It took at least 40 days to produce a print from start to finish. Like other sosaku
artists he drew, carved and printed each of his works entirely by himself. After
the editions were printed he destroyed the blocks. In time this would give him
better control over his market and guaranteed the rising value of individual
prints due to rarity. Every time one of his images entered a public collection
such as the
British
Museum
(大英博物館 or だいえいはくぶつかん)there would be fewer copies in the open marketplace and the competition
for the remaining examples would be fiercer.
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His works are printed on ganpi which
is a remarkable thin translucent paper and they are enhanced by the use of mica.
Each of these traits speaks volumes about his remarkably skillful mastery of his
craft and his art.
Kokei is said to cancel his
woodblocks when he has finished an edition by carving his name prominently
across them. |
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This particular image represents Seno Juro from the kabuki play Genpei
Nunobiki no Taki. It is also commonly known as the Sanemori
Monogatari (実盛物語 or さねもりものがたり). Like so many other kabuki plays this one is complex and
convoluted: there are mistaken identities, role reversals,
self-decapitation, abandoned children, attempted infanticide, supernatural
body parts and much, much more. The crux of the story is very loosely based
on an aspect of the Heike-Genji conflict of the twelfth century. The first theatrical
production took place in 1749 in a puppet play.
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This print is accompanied by a Japanese certificate of authenticity.
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THE WOOD USED
MAGNOLIA
OBOVATA (THUN.)
朴の木
HŌNOKI
ほおのき
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Above is an example
showing the grain of the Magnolia obovata tree. |
First off, let me tell you, I am
not a wood worker. I am not even good at identifying different kinds of
woods by their grains. But I am a wood lover and appreciate their beauties
and their wonderful qualities brought out by great craftsmen. When I
was very young my parents took me to Chicago where we visited the Museum of
Science and Industry. I remember all kinds of things about that visit: The
Colleen Moore dollhouse; the coal mine; the submarine; the crystals and how they grow; but most especially I remember the examples showing the
richness of all kinds of wood grains from all over the world.(1) My favorite
at the time was Brazilian rosewood. So, I don't have to know the different
woods to appreciate them. (You don't have to be a gourmet chef to enjoy
an incredible meal, do you?)
Now I work with Japanese woodblock
prints and naturally the topic of the various woods being used comes up
frequently. Here my knowledge is more academic than real. Credible sources
tell us that the most commonly used wood came from the wild cherry tree or
yamazakura (山桜 or やまざくら). Rebecca Salter in her
Japanese Woodblock
Printing states that "Japan was particularly fortunate in having
plentiful supplies of
yamazakura (wild mountain
cherry, Prunus serrulata) which was perfect for the technique. The
yamazakura has few flowers
or fruit and the pith on the inside lining of each annual growth ring is the
same density as the ring itself. The best planks come from trees grown on
mountains near the sea, particularly on the Izu peninsula near Tōkyō."(2)
I always thought that the standard
oban woodblock size might possibly be governed by the more diminutive size
of the wild cherry wood trees, but I was wrong. One authoritative botanical
site states clearly that some of these trees would grow up to 60' in height
with 12' diameters. More than large enough even with wastage for prints oban
or larger. Once felled the logs of this tree are left to dry for two years before
being cut into planks. Then those planks are left to age in the shade for
several more years. "During this time, planks which warped or split were
discarded."(3)
Salter notes that the cherry wood
was "fine and even" and relatively easy to carve without splintering.
However, "Cherry from too far north in Japan was considered tougher to carve
and did not take the color well."(4) On page 17 she discusses other types of
wood used for carving woodblocks. One of these of course is hō,
a shortened form of the word
hōnoki.
"Hō
is quite lightweight and good for small prints, having an easily
carved, soft and uniform texture."(5) However, Toshi Yoshida and Rei Yuki in
their book Japanese Print Making: A Handbook of Traditional & Modern
Techniques do make one clarifying point: "Although Japan has a rich
variety of trees and although many kinds of wood have been tried through the
centuries, it is only
yamazakura...that has proved to [have all of the] requirements
for ukiyo-e printing. Other woods such as
hō
and katsura...are good
for making modern prints, but do not fill the requirements for making
the traditional type of prints."(6) |
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Above is an example
showing the grain of the wild cherry tree or yamazakura. |
1. Don't be too quick to judge me
for mentioning Colleen Moore's dollhouse. Miss Moore was a silent screen
film star who devoted a lot of time and money into the creation of this
masterpiece. When we visited there was an extra charge just to see it.
According to museum authorities approximately 1,500,000 people view it every
year on an average. I can remember many different things about it like its
kitchen, lighting, fountains, but most of all I remember its library filled
with miniature books. If my memory doesn't escape me that was the same room
that contained a reliquary holding a splinter from the 'True Cross' given to
Ms. Moore by Clare Booth Luce. Mrs. Luce had received it from the Pope Pius
XII when she was the American Ambassador to Italy.
2. Japanese Woodblock Printing,
by Rebecca Salter, University of Hawai'i Press, 2001, p. 15.
3. Ibid., p. 16.
4. Ibid., p. 15.
5. Ibid., p. 17.
6.
Japanese Print Making: A
Handbook of Traditional & Modern Techniques, by
Toshi Yoshida and Rei Yuki,
published by Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1966, p. 30. (Katsura - 桂 or
かつら) |
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Above is an example
showing the grain of the Katsura. |
WHAT DOES THE THUN. OF
MAGNOLIA
OBOVATA (THUN.) MEAN? |
As you can probably tell from my
previous comments I am no botanist. However, I am always inquisitive and
eager to learn. That is why once I had begun to research Magnolia obovata
and found the 'Thun.' after it I wasn't going to rest until I figured it out
what it meant. I had a general idea, but had trouble discovering the
specifics. I looked it up on the Internet. Nada. I looked it up in the
Oxford English Dictionary and found several references, but they were all
listed as 'Thun.' and that was no help. So, I went back to the Internet and
the funny thing is that if you keep trying and it is out there you will find
it and I did.
A student of Carl Linnaeus
(1707-78) Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) was a Swedish physician and
botanist who visited Japan for a year in 1775. As an employee of the Dutch
East India company he lived in Nagasaki which was the only port allowed to
foreigners at the time. During his sojourn he catalogued more than 800
plants and lectured to Japanese scholars on European medicine, astronomy,
botany and zoology. What a remarkable man. After Thunberg returned to Sweden
he taught at the University of Uppsala and published books about his
research including the Flora Japonica
(1784) and the Icones plantarum Japonicarum (1794-1805).
Thunberg was permitted a visit to
Edo to the shogun's court where he met one of his most significant Japanese
contacts Katsuraga Hoshū (桂川甫周 or かつらがわほしゅう / 1751-1809).
In 1777 Hoshū was the sixth
member of his family to be named as private physician to a shogun. During
his career he collaborated on a translation of the first European volume on
anatomy to appear in Japan.
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カール.ペーター.トゥーンベリ |
I READ THIS ON
MAY 28, 2008:
HIROSHI
YOSHIDA'S DISPARAGING REMARKS ABOUT
HŌNOKI |
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"Hōnoki is rather soft. Its surface with the rough fibre produces an
impression not altogether pleasing. But beginners use it mainly on account of
its being easy to cut. Sakura and katsura have a harder grain, but they are more
satisfactory than hōnoki. In olden times other kinds of wood, such as keyaki (Zelkowa
serrata, Mak.), were inlaid in the block in order to give the benefit of the
grain in special selected parts of the print."
Quoted from: Japanese Wood-block Printing, by Hiroshi Yoshida, 1939, p.
17.
These comments are all that much more remarkable
considering how ably Kokei mastered his craft using this wood. |
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AS IF THINGS WERE
CONFUSING ENOUGH |
GANPI vs. GAMPI |
雁皮 vs.
雁皮 |
These are the same thing. When
doing research look them both up. They are interchangeable. |
GANPISHI
雁皮紙
がんぴし |
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"The Heian Period (794-1185)
was the 'golden age' of papermaking, not so much for quantity but for
quality and variety. With the flowering of courtly culture...there developed
a wider demand for both official papers and luxuriously decorated sheets on
which to keep diaries, write poems and so forth. Little, if any, however,
found its way into the hands of the common people." (1) |
"It is the paper equivalent of silk" (2) |
Numerous sources make it very
clear that ganpi is different from other papers not only by its qualities,
but also because its source plant can --- or could --- not be cultivated.
(3) "The seven or eight varieties of gampi are collected from
February to May when the branches are still saturated with water. They are
then stripped of bark without prior seasoning and are dried. Their long,
fine fibres are totally resistant to insect damage." (4) |
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During the Heian Period Hizen
Province "...paid a tribute of gampi to the [Court]..." (5) |
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In sixteenth century
literature the village of Kawakita is mentioned for its thin
gampi used in the production of hakuuchigami, a
"...paper used as a base sheet for the beating of gold and silver foil. A
little clay is added to increase the paper's heat resistance, and the
surface is made especially smooth with carefully chosen materials." After
World War II production fell off sharply: "Nearly all the workers in her
mill are women; it is said that it takes the skilled hands and eyes of women
papermakers to produce a perfectly smooth and even
gampi paper." (6)
"To increase its durability
and smoothness, gold foil beaters soak
hakuuchigami in straw ash mixed with eggs and kaki-shibu
for ten hours or more, dry it, and give it an additional beating." In recent
years it has become popular for painting and calligraphy because of its
outstanding qualities. (7) |
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There is a type of
gampi paper called torinoko (鳥の子) which was first mentioned in the
literature of circa 1330. "It is called
torinoko
('child of the bird') because the color of the paper is like that of the
shell of an egg." It is this type of
gampi paper which was being acclaimed as "the king of papers" by
1684.
(8) |
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"Since Omi torinokogami is strong and durable, it was once made
into paper money by the local clan. It was particularly useful as a base
paper for gold and silver leaf, which was processed in Kyoto into thread for
weaving and embroidering." (9) |
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"The court ladies of the Heian Period preferred gampi paper for
the poem-writing, and large quantities of
Omi torinokogami were used at poetry parties." Local artisans
learned the secret of decorating the gampi with flecks of gold and
silver.
Few examples of this paper exist today.
(10) |
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If you were to see
comprehensive exhibitions of Rembrandt (レンブラント) or Whistler (ホイッスラー) etchings you
would occasionally see prints which exhibit a warm, yellowish
glow. These are often printed on remarkably thin paper which almost defy the
process and which stand apart from the rest of these artists' oeuvres. These
are often described as being etched on papier japon. Perhaps at times
this papier japon is ganpi like that used by Kokei.
The most instructive
element of these prints comes through a personal handling outside of frames.
However, even framed it is also instructive to see the same image printed on
two distinctly different types of paper: one japon and one European. |
REMBRANDT AND GANPI |
レンブラント |
雁皮 |
"From about 1647 onwards, Rembrandt frequently printed on papers of
non-European origin. Although these papers vary in weight and color, study
and analysis have shown most of them to be of Japanese manufacture and
composed entirely of the fibers of the inner bark of the gampi
plant." (11)
The Dutch had exclusive trading rights with the
Japanese at this time. However, there is only a record of two small
shipments of paper to Europe: one in 1643 and the next one a year later.
This would have been the source of Rembrandt's papers and must have been
extremely expensive. This gampi ranged in color from almost pure
white "...through pale yellows to dark golds [and] there are shades of warm
and pearly greys as well." (12)
"Aside from the pleasures of color and texture it affords, the quality
that makes gampi paper so unusual and eminently appropriate for
pulling prints is its soft surface which receives ink readily under minimum
pressure, and so does not wear down fine drypoint lines and burr as quickly
as rougher paper surfaces tend to do. Japanese paper expands when dampened
and shrinks when dried, more so than European papers." (13) |
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(1) "Washi", Kodansha Enclyclopedia of Japan, entry by Brian Hickman, vol. 8, 1983, p. 232.
Heian period (Heian jidai
平安時代 or へいあんじだい)
Washi (和紙 or わし) = Japanese
paper
George Hoffmann (ジョージ.ホフマン),
in his award winning Montaigne's Career published in 1998, wrote
about the great essayist's life at his chateau near Bordeaux including a
description of the contents of his library and how expensive and rare these
volumes were. Generally, today, we tend to think of Gutenberg's press as
having liberated the masses with the newly availabile printed matter. But
such was not the case. Like so many other inventions the early costs of
production were truly dear and added to that literacy was the domain
of the nobility and the church and they were the only ones who could afford
such precious items. The same would have been true of the acquisition and
use of paper in Heian Japan.
(2) The Art of Japanese
Paper, by Dominique Buisson, published by Terrail, Paris, 1992, p. 10.
(3) Some contemporary sources
state that with time and patience ganpi can be farmed, but only on a very
limited scale. In this age of immediacy it is hard to believe anyone would
even try.
(4) Ibid., p. 26.
(5) Tesuki WASHI Shuho:
Fine Handmade Papers of Japan, by Yasuo Kume, published by Yushodo,
Tokyo, 1980, vol. I, p. 99.
(6) Ibid., p. 31.
(7) Ibid.
(8) Ibid., p. 35.
(9) Ibid. p. 56
(10)
Ibid.
(11) Rembrandt: Experimental Etcher, Hacker Art Books, New York,
1988, p. 180.
(12)
Ibid.
(13) Ibid. |
A LITTLE
MORE ABOUT
GAMPI
During the Heian Period "...male aristocrats used danshi and
female ones thin hishi (a fine grade gampi paper) for their
poetry. (p. 13)
There is a special kind of gampi paper made for both writing and
elegant decorative purposes. It is called mizutamagami or
'water drop paper'. "A plain base sheet is formed with gampi, and
another gampi paper dyed with indigo is beaten and reduced to short
fibers; this solution is thinly scooped onto the base sheet. A small whisk
dipped into water is flicked over the paper, and where the drops fall holes
form in the indigo sheet to reveal the white sheet underneath." (p. 38)
Gampi dates back to as early as the Nara Period (710-794). (p. 51)
One gampi maker working at the foot of Mt. Fuji used only boards
of horse chestnut to dry his long fibered sheets in the sunshine. (p. 52)
Shuzenjigami of Izu was first mentioned in 1444. It is dyed a pale
pink and is formed by combining gampi with mitsumata.
"The gampi paper made at Atami in the middle of the Edo Period probably
belonged to the
Shuzenjigami tradition. This paper, dyed to the tastes of
calligraphers and the literati, was sold by paper wholesalers in Edo and
gained tremendous popularity. It is said to have survived up to the end of
the Taisho Period." (p. 53)
Omi-torinokogami, a gampi product, "...remains
indispensible in the repair of valuable cultural properties..." "The village
of Kiryu is located where the Kusatsu River flows down from the mountains to
the plain around Lake Biwa. The gampi trees that grow on the
slopes of these mountains were a major factro in Kiryu's development into a
center of torinokogami production." (p. 55)
"The white bark of the fiber is usually boiled with soda ash, but special
papers, for example those used for repairing cultural properties and the
base paper for indigo dyeing, are boiled with lye extracted from wood ash."
While most papermakers remove impurities only once special papers require a
second repitition of this process. "The wet sheets are then placed on boards
and dried in the sun." While horse chestnut was mentioned above gampi
requires the smoothness of ginko surfaces. "Traces of the drying board's
grain can be covered up easily in the case of kozo paper, but
gampi requires the smoothest possible surface because its fibers are
finer and tend to reproduce the grain." (Ibid.)
All quotes are from
Tesuki WASHI Shuho:
Fine Handmade Papers of Japan, by Yasuo Kume, published by Yushodo,
Tokyo, 1980, vol. I. |
UZAEMON XVII
Born: July 11,
1916
Died: July 8,
2001.
Uzaemon XVII is from a long line of actors going back at
least seven generation to the late seventeeth century and probably even
earlier. The list of images shown below give a graphic example of that
descent. |
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His father was
Bandō Hikosaburō VI (1886-1938).
Below he is
portrayed by Natori Shunsen in 1928 in the role of Matsuōmaru.
This image is
shown courtesy of Kabuki 21.
Click on the
image to go to the Kabuki 21 home page.
It is the best
and most complete site in English and French on kabuki on the Internet.
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His grandfather was Onoe Kikugorō
V (1844-1903).
Below is a
detail from a print by Kunichika from 1893 in the role of Tetsuzan.
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His great grandfather was Ichimura Takenojō
V (1812-1851) - aka Ichimura
Uzaemon XII.
Below is a
detail of a print by Toyokuni III from 1852.
This image is shown courtesy of Kabuki 21.
Click on the image to go to the Kabuki 21 home page.
It is the best
and most complete site in English and French on kabuki on the Internet.
|
Ichimura Uzaemon XII seen above was the son of Ichimura Uzaemon XI
(1791-1821).
[No image of
Ichimura Uzaemon XII is yet available to us.] |
Ichimura Uzaemon XI was the adopted son of Ichimura Uzaemon X (1748-1799).
[No image of
Ichimura Uzaemon XI is yet available to us.] |
Ichimura Uzaemon X
was the son of Ichimura Uzaemon IX (1725-1785).
This detail below is from a print from 1776 by Shunsho.
It shows
Uzaemon IX as the umbrella merchant
Rokurobei.
Shown courtesy of Kabuki 21.
Click on the image to go to the Kabuki 21 home page.
It is the best
and most complete site in English and French on kabuki on the Internet.
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Ichimura Uzaemon IX was the son of
Ichimura Uzaemon VIII (1698-1762) - aka
Ichimura Takenojô IV.
The print of
Uzaemon VIII shown
below is by Nishimura Shigenaga (1697?-1756) and shown courtesy of Kabuki 21.
Click on the image to go to the Kabuki 21 home page.
It is the best
and most complete site in English and French on kabuki on the Internet.
|
At this point the lineage
becomes a bit more muddied.
Uzaemon VIII was the younger brother of
Uzaemon VII (1681-98) who was the son of Kikuyu
Zenbei who was married to the sister of Uzaemon V (1654?-91). When
Uzaemon VII's
father died he was adopted by Uzaemon V. Before that it gets even more
confusing, but if you sit down and make a chart the line can be traced back
even further. But for now I am stopping and hope that you have understood
the point of this exercise which ends (or begins - depending on how you look
at it) with the portrait of Uzaemon XVII featured on this page. |
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