The Xilographies 'Ukiyo-E', a means of communication during the EDO period

In France, the exhibitions dedicated to the Xilographies Ukiyo-E always have a large influx of visits.Japanese art awakens an unparalleled fascination in the West since the second half of the nineteenth century, germ of the extraordinary artistic movement known as Japanese.Initially, interest in this art, especially for xylographs, concentrated exclusively on the circles formed by initiated in the matter.However, these works soon began to attract the attention of an increasingly numerous audience thanks to the celebration of universal exhibitions and the existence of specialized stores in the sale of objects of the East.The beautiful and colorful Japanese xylographies, affordable until the 1890s, aroused passions between personalities such as the Manet, Degas, Monet and Van Gogh painters, the Bracquemond recorder, the sculptor Rodin and the Edmond writers and Jules of Goncourt;They were served as a source of inspiration.

The enthusiasm of the West for the Ukiyo-E was a surprise for the Japanese, who had never seen them as works of art: for the inhabitants of the country of the rising sun these polychographies polycroma were a playful, pedagogical and media element that was part ofeveryday life.

We return to the EDO period (1603-1868) to explain how these xylographs were used at the time they were born.

The birth of Japanese xylographs

The Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) decided in 1603 that the new administrative capital was located in the swampy town of Edo, the current Tokyo.It took this time to become a great city capable of rivaling with Kyoto, imperial capital at the time.During the EDO period (1603-1868), called by the administrative capital, Japan witnessed a peace and stability that led to the growth of the economy.At that time, the feudal lords, the Daimyō, were forced to serve the shogun for certain periods of time in Edo under a system called Suckin-Kōtai.After complying with the stipulated by the Tokugawa government, they could return to their lands accompanied by their escort.However, their women and children had to remain in the capital, and became hostages of the shogun.These displacements between the fesses and Edo were exhausting and very expensive, hence the feudal lords would be borrow and were forced to ask for loans from the merchants.In this way, the social class formed by merchants and artisans was easily enriched and began to feel the desire to lead a comfortable life full of amusements;Shortly after they began to impose their tastes in matters such as art, literature, theater and all kinds of shows.This was how a novel and rich culture was born in demonstrations.In this context, the UKIYO-E also originated, the result of a constant evolution technique to improve and adapt to the trends of the time.It should be noted that the term ukiyo-e refers to both xylographs and pictures.

The xylography arrived in Japan from China and, at first, was used to stamp and illustrate Buddhist texts.He reinvented 'in the seventeenth century, when the painter Hishikawa Moronobu (? -1694) decided to use this technique to perform xylographs in separate leaves, around the year 1660.These first works, called Sumizuri-e, were in black and white, and were made with Chinese ink on traditional Japanese paper.However, people wanted to buy xylographs in various colors.It was then that an orange tone began to be used, the tan, a mixture of sulfur and mercury.Thus the tan-e were born.These were followed, a hundred years later, the beni-e, which presented a more reddish tone obtained from the caratamo or alazor, and the Urushi-E, lacquered in black.

In the mid-18.His birth was a fundamental progress towards the creation of polygraphs, the so-called brocked xylographs (Nishiki-E), by the hand of the painter Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770) around the year 1765.

The first xylographs polychrome.The ukiyo-e are the fruit of a teamwork: first, an editor commissioned a drawing, which was always made with Chinese brush and ink, a painter of his choice.Subsequently, the artist's work had to receive the approval of censorship to be able to send it to an engraver and a stammer (*1).Throughout this process, the editor was the one who played the main role.Among the main editors is Tsutaya Jūzaburō (1750-1797), which discovered some of the great figures of the time, such as Utamaro, Hokusai and Sharaku, with whom he filed a great professional relationship.

The xylographs, which were on sale in specialized stores (Ezōshiya) or could be purchased through street vendors, were delivered to the buyer rolled, as done today with the posters with the posters.They were the perfect gift for the people who moved from the provinces to the capital, or for those who traveled outside the city, for their little weight.They enjoyed great success until the arrival of photography in the 19th century.

The utilitarian and advertising xylographs

Child on toy horse (1765-1770), by Suzuki Harunobu.

Suzuki Harunobu developed the first polychography polychrome for an enlightened calendar (Egoyomi).The androgynous characters of Gracil Silhouette he drew and the Imported and relief, Karazuri or Kimedashi prints, respectively, of his work left their contemporaries wonderful.

Subsequently, numerous xylographs were performed for precise purposes: at that time the trade was in full swing, so it was necessary to advertise for restaurants and sederies;The latter constitute the origin of the department stores of our time.The xylographs were used to elaborate the advertising claims of these establishments, especially at the end of the EDO period.In this work by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) the Sedaimaru silk store is observed, some department store today.

Xilographs also served to inform how to protect or cure certain contagious diseases;They indicated what foods it was necessary to consume or avoid in such cases.In addition, they were used to announce cosmetics, especially white powders (Oshiroi) that women used to make up their face and neck, and beni, precursor to current lipbars.In the xylographs you could see the three colors of the makeup of the women of the time: the white for the skin, the red for the mouth and the black for the eyebrows and the teeth;At that time, the Japanese still had the denture to marry.Subsequently, a fourth tone became fashionable, the green, to paint the lower lip as prostitutes did.It was obtained by applying successive layers of Beni, precious and expensive.

Yoshiwara, neighborhood of Edo's pleasure for his high -ranking prostitutes, was represented in xylographs often.The women who worked there were carriers of the latest trends in hairdressing and makeup.However, after the lavishness and silk of his kimonos a little enviable life was hidden;Many of them, especially those of low rank, died young.

The representation of female beauty reached its peak from the hand of the artist Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806).His portraits of women in the foreground on a mycaceous background became fashionable.

Ukiyo-e painters liked to portray, in addition to high-ranking prostitutes, Kabuki actors, a group that many people also imitated.People bought the xylographs in which they appeared as it was done in the West, centuries later, with the photographs of the film stars.The works of the enigmatic Sharaku enjoy fame, whose identity is still a mystery today, although there are numerous hypotheses about who he really was.

In the 19th century, interest in travel and pilgrimages grew, and with him they saw the magnificent xylographies of artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige.His landscape works meant a huge advertising claim of the places they represented.

Pedagogical xylographs

Education began to occupy an increasingly important place in Japanese society during the Edo period.In addition to the schools that only the sons of the Samurai could attend, educational establishments arose in the temples, the Terakoya, to which the merchants and the artisans, and later the peasants, sent their offspring.The teaching of these centers was not religious, but matters such as calculation, calligraphy and reading were given.There are numerous xylographies in which you can see children laughing, crying, having fun or studying at school.Xylographs were also performed to facilitate schoolchildren to learn to read the Kana characters and Chinese ideograms, and to help remember the names of flowers, birds, etc..In the Meiji era (1868-1912) Japan opened abroad and began to teach English in the country, which is why xylographs were created for the learning of Latin alphabet and the basic vocabulary of this language.

The famous Daimaru Kimonos store in ōdenmacho, Edo (1847-1852), by Utagawa Hiroshige.

(From the left) the preferred eight beauties of our time: losing drinking (1823), by Keisai Eisen;The prostitute Hanaogi, of the Ogi-Ya establishment, and her assistants (1796), by Kitagawa Utamaro;Actor Segawa Kikunojo III in the role of Oshizu, wife of Tanabe Bunzo (1794), of Tōshūsai Sharaku.

The playful xylographs

Surely no one would dare to cut a Japanese xylography today.However, there was a time in which there were works of this type of cut -out, such as doll drawings and kimonos to dress them, models to mount, even goose games that delighted children and adults.Chinese hieroglyphs and shadows were also sold, of great popularity among the general public.

Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji (1831-1834), by Katsushika Hokusai.

The media xylographs

At the end of the Edo period, the Japanese people developed a greater interest in the habits and customs of foreigners, hence numerous xylographies that collected moments of the daily life of people from other countries would be made.

The xylographs were also very useful at a time when the newspapers were not born: they were used to get the information to the most remote provinces.Thus, xylographs were marketed to report events such as the death of a Kabuki actor, natural disasters, crimes, etc..There were also many other types of xylographs;For example, important samurai portraits, and representations of monsters and ghosts.

(Left) hieroglyphs of Samurais (1847-1852), by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.(Right) drying in the shade all kinds of things improvised: a ship entering the port and a cup of tea with its dish (1830-1843), by Utagawa Hiroshige I.

(Left) United States, France and Nankín (1860), by Utagawa Hiroshige II.(Right) The hundred stories: Sarayashiki (1831-1832), by Katsushika Hokusai.

The Surimono

The only really artistic xylographs were the surimone, works of great beauty that censorship did not control.These magnificent ukiyo-e were not sold, but were carried out at the request of individuals who later gave them.In its elaboration, the softer role, the most luxurious pigments and the most sophisticated techniques of gofrous prints and colored degradation were used, and gold and silver powders were not spared.In order to admire them in all their splendor it was necessary to hold them with slightly inclined hands;Thus you could capture the delicacy of your bright tones and parts.

The formats

Throughout the Edo period, various formats arose, whose characteristics were established over time.From a simple leaf, diptych and triptychs were elaborated, even works with more parts.Among the decorative xylographs, the hashira-e, which used to go on a support and placed in the main room of Japanese households, specifically in a part of this room called Tokonoma.It is a consecrated space, in general, to traditional ornamentation.In fact, the xylographs replaced more expensive pictures;Sometimes they hit a column of the house (Hashira means "column" in Japanese, hence its name).

Erotic xylographs stampes

The image of the UKIYO-E both in Japan and in the West is limited to erotic xylographs on numerous occasions.There were two types: the Abuna-E and the Shunga.The former contained some sensuality that consisted, for example, in showing a bare leg that came out of a kimono, while the latter were erotic pieces themselves;Some of the latter were created by the most famous artists of the time.His beauty surprised many western ones, including the writer Edmond de Goncourt, enthusiastic of these works that said: "The other day I bought a collection of Japanese obscenities.I'm glad, have fun and marvel at me.I observe them out of the obscenity, which is present, but it seems not to be, and that I do not really see, since it is lost in fantasy."(Intimate Diario, Memories of Literary Life, by Edmond and Jules de Goncourt)

Japanese xylographs have not ceased to be a source of inspiration and fascination for artists around the world over time.Its elaboration, completely manual, surprises the general public.Only the best artisans are able to achieve perfection.

(Translated into Spanish from the original in French)

Fotografía del banner: Treinta y seis vistas del monte Fuji: La gran ola de Kanagawa, de Katsushika Hokusai. (The Adachi Institute of Woodcut Prints)