FREE SHUNGA: AESTHETIC OF JAPANESE EROTIC ART BY UKIYO-E MASTERS PDF Pie Books | 400 pages | 27 Feb 2014 | PIE BOOKS | 9784894448025 | English | Tokyo, Japan SHUNGA: AESTHETICS OF JAPANESE EROTIC ART BY UKIYO-E MASTERS | Rizzoli Bookstore Yamato-eor classical "Japanese style" painting, developed in the 12 th century. With its aerial perspectives, precise detail, clear outlines, and flat color, the art form existed in contrast to other styles of Japanese painting that reflected the influence of the Chinese. At the same time, other schools arose to advocate Japanese styles and subjects. In the mids, the artist Tosa Yukihoro established the Shunga: Aesthetic of Japanese Erotic Art by Ukiyo-e Masters School, which furthered yamato-eportraying stories from Japanese history and classical literature. One of the earliest examples of yamato-e was the illustrated scroll of the Tale of Genji 11 th centurythought to be the first novel ever written anywhere, by Murasaki Shikibu, a woman serving in the Heian court. Yamato-e emphasized the depiction of everyday details and people, as well as stories that had a Shunga: Aesthetic of Japanese Erotic Art by Ukiyo-e Masters connection to Japanese culture. During the Edo period, called such because Japan's capital had been moved to Tokyo then called Edothe country was under rule by the Shunga: Aesthetic of Japanese Erotic Art by Ukiyo-e Masters shogunate. This military regime enforced social segregation by emphasizing a hierarchal class system with warriors at the top, followed by farmers, craftsmen, and then merchants at the bottom. The regime also set aside certain walled areas in the cities where theatres, teahouses, and brothels were licensed and which came to be known as the "pleasure districts. As a result, art that reflected this decidedly Japanese lifestyle found a new audience with a rising middle class. Ukiyo-e was born as an evolution of yamato-eone in which the new lifestyle was emphasized and celebrated. The subjects of these worldly pleasures, as well as their inhabitants such as famous courtesans, kabuki Shunga: Aesthetic of Japanese Erotic Art by Ukiyo-e Masters, and the like became the preferred creative fodder of ukiyo-e prints. The prints were popular 'low' art forms, created for the merchant class and the urban working population, but soon came to be considered masterful works of art. Iwasa Matabei was a well-known painter of works depicted on byobu during this time. His portrayals of geishashostesses who entertained by playing instruments, dancing, and reciting classical Shunga: Aesthetic of Japanese Erotic Art by Ukiyo-e Masters poetry, as well as the leisure life of the middle class became early examples of ukiyo-e painting. Another artist, Hishikawa Moronobu, is considered to be the first great master and originator of ukiyo-e prints because of the book illustrations he began making in As color printing had not yet been invented, his prints were primarily monochromatic, though he also hand-painted some of them. He brought together the disparate elements of preceding ukiyo-e imagery and subject matter and formalized the art form with his mastery of line derived from calligraphy. His visuals included street scenes of ordinary life, images of reference to famous stories, poems, or historical events, and landscapes, images of beautiful women, and erotic prints. As a result, he is considered to be both the last of the proto- ukiyo-e artists and the first true ukiyo-e artist. Ukiyo-e remained the dominant art form during the last century of the Edo period. Ukiyo-e depended upon collaboration between four people. The artist, using ink on paper, drew the image that was then carved by a craftsman into a woodblock. A printer then applied pigment to the woodblock, and a publisher oversaw and coordinated the process and marketed the works. Ukiyo-e were most commonly produced as a sheet of prints, which were so inexpensive that many could afford them. They also were collected in books, called e-hon. Sometimes, a print might be made using two or three sheets of paper, creating a triptych effect. Portraits used a vertical format, landscapes a horizontal format, but occasionally, vertical and Shunga: Aesthetic of Japanese Erotic Art by Ukiyo-e Masters prints would be made, creating the effect of a scroll that would be displayed on columns or pillars. Suzuki Horunobu revolutionized ukiyo-e when in he invented the process to make nishiki-eor "brocade prints," that made possible a full employment of color. Shunga: Aesthetic of Japanese Erotic Art by Ukiyo-e Masters process involved making a series of woodblocks, all bearing the same image, and then a single color being applied to each block, so that the color on the final print was the result of layers of pigment. The pigments used were vegetable-based and water soluble and resulted in a subtle and rich palette. As many as 20 woodblocks might be used, each employing a different color, to print a single image on handmade paper. Horunobu's work influenced countless ukiyo-e artists. Most ukiyo-e artists not only studied under a particular master but also would take the name of that master. Between and thirty ukiyo-e schools developed, each representing the particular style of its founder as well as several generations of its subsequent artists. The existence of these various schools overlapped throughout the years but the most important schools were the Torii School, the Katsukawa School, and the Utagawa School. Kiyonobu I came from a family of prominent designers of kabuki promotional materials, and due to his own theatrical experience and interest, the Torii School pioneered the subject of kabuki theatre, which became one of the dominant themes of ukiyo-e prints. The school's style emphasized Shunga: Aesthetic of Japanese Erotic Art by Ukiyo-e Masters drama and its actors with their generalized appearances through bold designs with thick, energetic lines. The Torii School became the dominant style of the s as a new generation of artists came to the forefront. The school was innovative in using urushi-e prints, where the ink could be mixed with glue to create a lacquer effect or where mica or metal dust would be added to create a shimmering quality. They also explored Benizuri-e prints, "crimson printed" or "rose prints," in which a limited number of colors, often including green and pink, were applied to the printing process. Noted artists associated with the Torii School included Suzuki Harunobo, who invented nishiki-e brocade prints, Kitagawa Utamaro, and founder Torii Kiyonaga. All three artists became celebrated for their bijin-ga prints, depicting beautiful women. The Katsukawa School, founded by Miyagawa Shunsu aroundwas the first to portray kabuki actors in a way that departed from generic depiction and emphasized their individual characteristics and personalities. A more realistic depiction of people carried over into other genres of ukiyo-eas seen in Katsushika Hokusai's famous images of ordinary people in everyday life. Under the artist name Shunro early in his career, Hokusai was a member of the Katsukawa School. However, he innovatively began to explore the perspective and shading of Western art in his prints, resulting in his expulsion from the school. Hokusai described this significant event: "What really motivated the development Shunga: Aesthetic of Japanese Erotic Art by Ukiyo-e Masters my artistic style was the embarrassment I suffered at Shunko's hands. He first became famous for his mangawhich were books that contained woodblock prints of his sketches that art critic John-Paul Stonnard has described to contain, "every subject imaginable: real and imaginary figures and animals, plants and natural scenes, landscapes and seascapes, dragons, poets and deities combined together in a way that defies all attempts to weave a story around them. The Utagawa School was founded by Utagawa Toyoharu in the s and lasted into the s, being in effect the last great school of ukiyo-e. Some artists were either members of the school or associated with it, and the school created a majority of the known surviving ukiyo-e prints. By the mid th century, the school's prodigious production resulted in a kind of stereotypical portraiture, depicting lantern-jawed and somewhat exaggerated noses, resulting in criticism and a sense of ukiyo-e's decline. The renowned Hokusai was even to protest to his publisher that the woodblock carver kept altering the noses of his figures. Nonetheless the school became the best known of all ukiyo-e schools because it included the artists Toyokuni and Utagawa Hiroshige. Hiroshige became known as one of the all-time great masters of ukiyo-e who revived the art with his focus on serial views of landscape and scenes of ordinary life. Ukiyo-e was known for a number of genres depicting certain aspects of Japanese life. These included bijin-gashungayakusha-ekacho-gaand landscape. Bijin-gameaning "beautiful person picture," was a dominant genre of ukiyo-e. Early prints often depicted famous courtesans who were often viewed as celebrities, but subsequently, artists like Utamaro would portray women who were known for their beauty from the urban population. The portraits reflected not only changing standards of beauty in Japanese culture but the artist's sensibility. Working in the late s, Utamaro's figures were Shunga: Aesthetic of Japanese Erotic Art by Ukiyo-e Masters the first to become individualized, communicating the figure's personality and mood. The term shunga can be translated in Japanese as "pictures of spring," as spring euphemistically refers to sex. Shunga became a popular subject, as both men and women bought the images, usually sold in small books. Shunga depicted ordinary people, but also courtesans, and while the imagery was predominantly heterosexual, gay and lesbian relationships were also depicted.