An art exhibition titled "Five Ukiyo-e Favorites: Utamaro, Sharaku, Hokusai, Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi" has opened in Tokyo, bringing together masterpieces of the five artists from famed overseas art museums and elsewhere.
Held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, the show runs through Jan. 19.
A total of 326 works by Kitagawa Utamaro, Toshusai Sharaku, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige and Utagawa Kuniyoshi are on display like a "dream competition." Shugo Asano, chief director of the International Ukiyo-e Society and curator of the exhibition, shared some of its highlights with The Yomiuri Shimbun -- the following are excerpts of Asano's remarks.
Ukiyo-e prints were mass-consumption art that anyone could buy in the Edo period (1603-1867). People easily got bored if it was always the same, so artists had to come up with new content. These five masters survived in this competitive environment.
The exhibition has brought together prints in good condition, with the cooperation of domestic and overseas art museums. Ukiyo-e pictures were exported to Western countries in large volumes in the Meiji era (1868-1912). In particular, there are many works by Utamaro and Sharaku in good condition in Western countries.
This is an unprecedented lineup of masterpieces, and I hope visitors will savor each one.
Utamaro: Sensual beauty prints
Utamaro was an iconic artist of beautiful women. The works on display, including "Young Woman Blowing on a Glass Pipe," mainly consist of his work in the mid-Kansei era (1789-1801), which are well regarded overseas.
"The Fickle Type" and "Thoughtful Love" are representative of such works. Featuring sensual poses, these bust-length portraits also depict the inner beauty of the women with subtle lines and color choices.
Sharaku: Emphasizing uniqueness
Sharaku is the leading artist for depicting actors. The most significant aspect of his work was that he did not flatter actors -- he emphasized the unique contours of the people he portrayed, such as chin lines, and disliked beautifying his subjects like a promotional image would.
However, his works didn't just end up as caricatures. Instead, he conveyed the pathos of actors' lives, an element that brought Sharaku international acclaim.
Well-selected works are displayed at the exhibition, including "The Actor Otani Oniji III as Edobei," part of the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago.
Hokusai: Innovative landscape
Most of the Hokusai pieces at the exhibition are from the early Tenpo era (1830-44) when Hokusai called himself "Iitsu." His works, including those in the "Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji" series, sold well during this period.
At that time, imported colorants became available at lower prices, and vivid blue colors were used in such pictures as the "Great Wave off Kanagawa" of the series. In "Choshi in Shimousa Province" from the "One Thousand Pictures of the Sea" series, similar structures are used to depict waves hitting the shore and ones receding from the shore. Innovation and bold construction were Hokusai's great appeal.
Hiroshige: Aesthetics in landscape
In addition to works by Hokusai, the ukiyo-e genre of beautiful landscapes was created by Hiroshige's "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Road" series, which brought him to fame.
In the "Eight Views of Omi" series, Hiroshige depicted the sky in deep blue in early prints but later he basically used black, as in ink paintings. It is interesting to compare different prints of the same picture to see the changes in the artists' aesthetics.
The pictures from the birds and flowers genre perfected by Hokusai and Hiroshige are also worth viewing.
Kuniyoshi: Famous warriors
Wide-screen triptych pictures such as "The Ruined Palace at Soma" and "Miyamoto Musashi Kills an Enormous Whale" are iconic works by Kuniyoshi. His sense of humor also overflows in comic prints depicting cats in human guise.
Since the 1919 publication of "Rokudai Ukiyo-e Shi" (Six major ukiyo-e artists) by Yonejiro Noguchi, Suzuki Harunobu and Torii Kiyonaga have been considered two of the six great ukiyo-e artists along with Utamaro, Sharaku, Hokusai and Hiroshige. However, I decided to show Kuniyoshi's work for the exhibition due to his increasing popularity and praise in recent years.
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