The Artist Formerly Known as ...
The Floating World
The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai is one of the most recognisable works of art in human history. Part of the 18th and early 19th century art movement Ukiyo-e in Japan, it has influenced artists and musicians ever since and remains, of itself, surprisingly modern and contemporary.
Back in the 16th century Japanese printmaking enjoyed a boom as demand from wealthy merchants increased markedly. Sadly, this came to an end with the unification of Japan in 1600 under a shogunate, a rigid system of governance based on military strength and a fixed hierarchy. The merchant class were unable to travel as before as contact with the outside world was strictly forbidden, so they turned to Kubuki theatre, sumo, the beauty of nature and brothels to fill their time. According to Buddhist tradition these ‘lower form’ of pleasures are known as ‘the floating world’. Ukiyo-e art represents and records this period of Japanese society, and especially urban life and the ‘pleasure quarters’ of Yoshiwara and New Yoshiwara in Edo (Tokyo). Prints of famous actors, courtesans and explicit sexual activity were very popular. Ukiyo-e was a popular cultural form of its day, now considered high art. The art form was affordable because prints could be produced easily from the blocks, and gained in popularity with then invention of nishiki-e technique by Hishikawa Moronubo, allowing for the production of full colour prints. Moronubo was the first recognised master of the Edo period.
The golden age of Ukiyo-e was the late 18th century up until the mid 1850s, the time of the US expedition under Mattew Perry which opened Japan up to the mdern world. The art form is based on wood-block prints or cuts. The two great masters were Hokusai and Hiroshige, both of whom produced landscapes as well as urban scenes. Horoshige was born in Edo in 1797, and like Hokusai produced several series of works depicting the Japanese landscape – notably 100 Views of Famous Place in and Around Edo.
Hokusai produced 36 Views of Mount Fuji and this includes Great Wave off Kanagawa. The Great Wave is a seascape with Mount Fuji in the background. The wave itself is depicted as a claw, about to engulf some fishermen. Hokusai lived to an old age and was renowned as somewhat truculent and unconventional. He changed his name at least 30 times, and had a reputation as a pornographer. In later years he referred to himself as ‘The Art Crazy Old Man’.
He studied Dutch techniques of printmaking, more precisely etching. Legend has it that imported goods from Holland were wrapped in paper that had been used for etchings of Dutch landscapes. Hokusai died in 1849, and by the 1880s his work was known in Europe.
Ukiyo-e itself began to adapt as modern influences came to Japan, but it was eventually replaced by photography in the early 20th century. By the end of the Second World War, Ukiyo-e was in decline, but has mustered a comeback since the 1990s.
Less well known perhaps is that Ukiyo-e had a great impact on Impressionism and post-Impressionism in Europe. Monet, for example, lined the walls of Giverny with woodblock prints, while Van Gogh copied and reinterpreted some of Hiroshige’s works, notably the Sudden Shower over the Ohashi Bridge. It is arguable that the simple lines and structure of Ukiyo-e also helped shape modernism, certainly early Cubism. Edgar Degas was more drawn to the metropolitan Ukiyo-e, the images of geishas especially. This influence was known for a time as Japonisme or Japonaiserie. Beyond art, Ukiyo-e influenced the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright who became an avid collector and dealer. It is said that the Great Wave inspired Debussy’s great orchestrated Images, particularly La Mer (1905). It is also true to some extent that Japan’s current expertise in cartoons, comic books and graphic arts is born of the Ukiyo-e tradition and methods.
In this way, Ukiyo-e was helped into being by the spending of the merchant class, the traditional Japanese skills in printmaking, the fascination with pleasures of the flesh, the Shogun isolation and its breaking down in the late 19th century. Ukiyo-e skills are kept alive in modern Japanese art and in graphic art, but also by western artists such as Carol Jessen, Paul Binnie and Matt Brown. More than this, it influenced modernism in art and architecture and music.
If you find yourself in Tokyo, head for Jimbouchou, a city district known for print dealerships. You can own your very own Ukiyo-e original print from as little as a few hundred dollars, a permanent memory of the ‘floating world’.
