ROS: Ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e "the floating world"was a popular form of printed art during the Edo period, inexpensive and usually depicting scenes from everyday life in Japan's urban centres - fashion, entertainment & pleasures of the flesh.

The founder of Ukiyo-e was 17th centuary artist Hishikawa Moronobu. Some famous following artists were Ando Hiroshige, Hokusai Katsukika, Kitagawa Utamaro and Toshusai Sharaku.

Ukiyo-e is known for its exceptional woodblock prints. After opening trade with the west 1867, these prints became very well-known and influential in Europe. In the late 1800s-1950s, Japonisme influenced such artists as Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and Gauguin. Their paintings showJapanese characteristic style of flat brilliant colours, thick contours and bold design.

The production of woodblock prints is a complex process, many steps, each usually performed by a different craftsmen. Although in modern print movement, an artist often performs all the steps themselves.

The image would first be drawn onto washi (papers made from fibres of three plants, Kozo-paper mulberry,Mitsumata & Gampi), then glued onto a plank of wood, usually cherry. Wood would then be carved away.

Ink was applied to the block, using hake (horse's mane brush). Rice starch was sometimes added for better adhesion and colour depth. Paper was laid on the block, using the kento (one right angle, where the corner of the paper fits), and the ink rubbed onto the paper using a semi-circular motion with a barren (a large circular flat pad, of bamboo and coiled straw). A fixed sequence of colours was always followed, light, dark then finally dense blacks. Natural vegetable dyes were used until 1860's, gradually being replaced by aniline dyes.

Japanese prints were sometimes produced in limited editions as 'high art', but usually were mass-produced - posters. A publisher's ownership of the woodblock used to print an image formed the closest equivalent to "copyright".

Bibliography

http://www.artelino.com/articles/japanese_prints.asp
http://www.asianartmall.com/woodblockarticle.htm
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/ukiyoe.htm
http://images.google.com/images?q=woodblock+prints&hl=en&rls=GGLJ,GGLJ:2007-25,GGLJ:en&pwst=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=images&ct=titlehttp://
http://www.ukiyo-e.se/
http://www.ukiyoe-gallery.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonism

http://ana.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc//prints/process.html

Japanese Art of the Edo Period - Christine Guth

The Great Artists - A Marshall Cavendish Weekly Collection