HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

is the Japanese term for
picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...
s. It may be applied in the general sense, or may refer specifically to a type of woodblock printed illustrated volume published in the
Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
(1603–1867). The first were religious items with images by Buddhist painters. Those from the
Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
are typically known as . In the early modern period (1600–1868) illustrated books exploded in popularity. They covered a diverse range of subjects with experimentation in production techniques. production was a significant part of the Japanese publishing industry (particularly) during the 19th century; most Japanese woodblock print
artists An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, the ...
of the period produced designs (often in large quantities), as commercial work. Toward the end of the 19th century, chapter-books were eclipsed in popularity by the new "Western" concept of literary magazines. These were larger books which contained more, and a wider range of material per-issue, but usually fewer pictures (measured on a text-to-images ratio). They often used more modern printing methods; the increase in production costs was offset by increased efficiency, larger-scale printing and distribution, and the introduction of advertising. Typically, a magazine would include one large folded, polychrome illustration referencing some "feature" story in the volume, as a frontispiece. Such pictures, woodblock-printed in colour, are known as . The new format also absorbed most of the remaining talent and market for ukiyo-e style prints.


Notable

Artist manuals or model books () were treasured by art schools and became popular with the public.
Ōoka Shunboku was an ukiyo-e artist and painter who was known for his bird-and-flower paintings. Shunboku was born in the Kansai region, and lived most of his professional life in Osaka. Throughout his career Shunboku engraved reproductions of old masters, ...
's ('Hand mirror') of 1720 demonstrated characteristic styles of different artists. Illustrations which were either handpainted or stenciled appear in his of 1746, based on the successful Chinese ''
Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden ''Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden'' (, ), sometimes known as (), is a printed manual of Chinese painting compiled during the early-Qing Dynasty. Many renowned later Chinese painters, like Qi Baishi, began their drawing lessons with the manual. ...
'' of 1679 which was released as a Japanese version, , in 1748. In 1765 polychrome woodblock printing was developed in Edo. The prints were called , 'brocade pictures', because of their similarity to color silk
brocade Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in colored silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian ''broccato'' meaning "embos ...
s (). The first large-scale commercial book with full-color printing was in 1770, with artwork by
ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...
artists
Katsukawa Shunshō Shunshō Katsukawa ( ja, 勝川 春章; 1726 – 19 January 1793) was a Japanese painter and printmaker in the ''ukiyo-e'' style, and the leading artist of the Katsukawa school. Shunshō studied under Miyagawa Shunsui, son and student of Miy ...
and Ippitsusai Bunchō. The book featured realistic depictions of
kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to ...
actors () and was popular with theatergoers. The same year saw the publication of
Tachibana Minkō The term has at least two different meanings, and has been used in several contexts. People * – a clan of ''kuge'' (court nobles) prominent in the Nara and Heian periods (710–1185) * – a clan of ''daimyō'' (feudal lords) prominent in the Mu ...
's which was colored with a stenciling technique known as . It depicted craftsmen at work at was immediately successful. Also published in 1770 was by Suzuki Harunobu which combined poetry with images of courtesans from the
Yoshiwara was a famous (red-light district) in Edo, present-day Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1617, Yoshiwara was one of three licensed and well-known red-light districts created during the early 17th century by the Tokugawa shogunate, alongside Shima ...
brothel district. In 1790 the
Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...
introduced severe censorship laws for publishers. They targeted "luxurious" works and for a while publishers ceased production of color woodblock-printed books. The famous ukiyo-e artist
Hokusai , known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the ...
worked on dozens of early in his career. In 1814 the first volume of his was published which featured hundreds of drawings colored with gray and rose pink tones. Its popularity with multiple subsequent volumes appears to have influenced other publishers to use a simplified palette of subdued color. One of the finest ehon works is his ''
100 Views of Mount Fuji is a series of three illustrated books by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. It is considered one of Japan's most exceptional illustrated books (''e-hon''), and alongside the '' Hokusai Manga'', the most influential in the West. The first two volu ...
'' released in 1834–1835 in two volumes by
Nishimuraya Yohachi Nishimuraya Yohachi (dates unknown) was one of the leading publishers of woodblock prints in late 18th Japan. He founded the Nishimuraya Yohachi publishing house, also known as Nishiyo (西与), which operated in Nihonbashi's Bakurochō Nichōme u ...
with extremely fine carving by the workshop of
Egawa Tomekichi Egawa Tomekichi (fl. ) was a master carver of Japanese woodblock prints in Edo period Japan. He is known for his exceptional work on Hokusai's illustrated books (''e-hon'') such as the '' Hokusai Manga'' and his '' 100 Views of Mount Fuji'' wh ...
and exquisite grey gradations (). It is seen as the pinnacle of monochrome printing.


Nara picture books, or , are lavishly handmade illustrated manuscripts which date from the mid-16th century to the late 17th-century. The contents of these manuscripts consists mostly of which are short narratives concerning war epics, folklore or
Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...
and Buddhist legends. loosely refers to manuscripts that are either in book or scroll formats. The term is believed to emanate from illustrators who came from major Buddhist temples in and around the Nara region, such as
Tōdai-ji is a Buddhist temple complex that was once one of the powerful Nanto Shichi Daiji, Seven Great Temples, located in the city of Nara, Nara, Nara, Japan. Though it was originally founded in the year 738 CE, Tōdai-ji was not opened until the year ...
and
Kōfuku-ji is a Buddhist temple that was once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples in the city of Nara, Japan. The temple is the national headquarters of the Hossō school. History Kōfuku-ji has its origin as a temple that was established in 669 b ...
or the
Kasuga-taisha is a Shinto shrine in Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan. It is the shrine of the Fujiwara family, established in 768 CE and rebuilt several times over the centuries. The interior is famous for its many bronze lanterns, as well as the many stone lan ...
. The manuscripts are decorated with ink, colour pigments, gold, as well as silver-decorated endleaves. When the amount of commissions from the nobility at these temples declined, the artists left for
Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
to set up studios and took orders for work, similar to local painters.


Manufacture

Most of the Edo period were made with side-stitched binding. They used highly durable
washi is traditional Japanese paper. The term is used to describe paper that uses local fiber, processed by hand and made in the traditional manner. ''Washi'' is made using fibers from the inner bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub (''Ed ...
paper. A page is made from a single sheet printed on one side which is folded printed side out. These folded sheets are bound at their open ends with cords of twisted paper which go through two holes made in the stack of sheets. The bookcover is glued to blank outer pages and attached to the stack of pages with a hemp cord stitched through four holes which penetrate the covers and book block. This method of binding is called .


See also

*
Japanese books Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspo ...
*


References


External links


The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book
The Gerhard Pulverer Collection
Ehon: the artist and the book in Japan
New York Public Library {{DEFAULTSORT:E-Hon Ukiyo-e genres Japanese books Japanese art