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 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment