Thursday, June 10, 2021

Japanese woodblock triptychs

I am taking a writing seminar, and one of our jobs over the next couple of months is to assemble a scrapbook of items related to the pieces we are working on. The pieces being: a study of place or environment; a triptych—basically, a three-part essay, each part being no more than a page or so; and a longer in-progress piece. I am choosing to pick up my moribund project on Japanese internment camps for at least the first two of these—get back into exploring the characters I've met already, and continue learning about and reimagining that dark time. 

Today while searching the internet for information on art materials used in traditional Japanese art, and ranging outward into woodblock prints, I stumbled on . . . triptychs! One of my characters is an artist. Although he doesn't do woodblock art, someone else in camp surely does. And I think they are going to start a school. 

Anyway, here are a few of the pieces I found (click on them to see them large):

Utagawa Fusatane (fl. ca. 1854–1897),
Comparison of Beauties with Spring Flowers:
Cherry, Mountain Rose, and Plum

(Shun shoku hanami: Sakura, yamabuki to ume),
8th month 1852

Utagawa Kuniaki II (1835–1888), Professional Sumo
Wrestlers Practicing
(Ōzumō keiko no zu), 1866

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) and
Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1864),
Snow View (Yuki no nagame), from the series
Fashionable Genji (Furyu Genji), 12th month 1853

First half of 20th century; artist unidentified

Utagawa Kunisada, The Tama River at Chofu, 1854

Utagawa Toyokuni (1769–1825) (?),
Deep Snow at End of Year
(Seibo no shinsetsu)
[the ? is because I'm betting this is actually
the work of Utagawa Kunisada, but the site where
I found this image only specifies "Toyokuni"]
 

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861),
Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre,
c. 1844


Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892),
Dueling on Gojo Bridge from an Episode
of the Life of Yoshitsune,
1881

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Fujiwara Yasumasa Plays the Flute
by Moonlight
(Fujiwara Yasumasa gekka roteki), 1883

Utagawa Kunisada, Artisans (Shokunin), 1857

If you're wondering why so many of the artists are named Utagawa, it's because they took the gō (art-name) of the founder of the ukiyo-e school to which they belonged. From there, it just gets complicated. But yes, I was surprised to learn that the famous Hiroshige belonged to this school.

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