For over two hundred
and
fifty It was a
time of peace and prosperity and since Haiku,
the kabuki theater, yoshiwara districts Much of the
spirit of those times was depicted
years, Japan had isolated
itself
from
the rest of the world - this
was the time
of
the Tokugawa Shogunate
(1615-1868), a
military
dictatorship of samurai,
headed up by the
Tokugawa clan.
politics and government were the monopoly
of
the samurai class, the only outlet for the
growing
merchant class ("chonin") was in the
economic
sector, making financial profits. As their
wealth
grew, and it grew rapidly, the
chonin
increased
their appetite for pleasure and
the
joys of this world ("ukiyo").
(the
"pleasure quarters") netsuke carvings,
and graphic arts of all sorts found
willing
patrons and able practitioners.
with
great clarity in the woodblock prints of
Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige. These
prints,
brought to the West by traders and ship
captains in the nineteenth century,
became
collector's items and had a marked effect
on
the work of artists throughout
Europe.
 |
In
Tokugawa Japan, woodblock prints quickly
became "pop art", the art of the common
man.
Since the possibility of reproducing
many
copies from one set of carved blocks
enabled
prints to be sold cheaply, they
were
thus
able to reach a wide
audience.
|
men, the original artist who makes the sketch,
the woodblock carver, and the printer who
applies each color to the blocks by hand.
The blocks necessary to produce a finished
print - one for each color used in addition to
the master block with the black outline - range
in number from four to a dozen or more.
 |
The art continues
to develop and flourish with
new
techniques and forms and
collectors today
seek out the works of
Munakata, Murakami,
Saito and Nakayama
among
others.
And now, on the following
pages, I would
like to
offer a few
examples from my small
collection of
woodblock prints for
your
inspection and
enjoyment.
~NEXT~
