ukiyo-e – my daily art display

Utagawa Kuniyoshi and Nichiren. Part 1.

In March 2023 I took you on a Japanese journey The Tokaido Road Trip and today I want you to join me on another such voyage of discovery through a series of ten Japanese woodblock prints in ink and color on paper made by Japanese artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi, one of the last the great Masters of ukiyo-e. Kuniyoshi was born on 1 January 1st 1798, the son of a silk-dyer, Yanagiya Kichiyemon. It is thought that he helped in his father’s business as a pattern designer, and those days helped to influence him some with regards to his rich colour usage and textile patterns in his prints

Self-portrait of Utagawa Kuniyoshi from the shunga album Chinpen shinkeibai, (1839)

The ukiyo-e movement came to prominence in Japan between the 17th and 19th century. It was a form of art and one of the first times in Japanese history when art ended the adherence of social class and developed into an art form that appealed to the lowborn, who had money, as well as the rich aristocrats.

The Ghost of Asakura Togo, Woodblock Print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

The subjects most found in these woodblock prints were travel, beautiful prostitutes, and kabuki actors, the 19th century Japanese equivalent of movie stars. Many of his popular prints were often not really something that the aristocracy would want to display in their residences, but such depictions as in his print, The Ghost of Asakura Togo, were just the thing that appealed to everyday Japanese urbanites who were searching for some excitement in their lives.

The Story of Nichiren

The portrait of Nichiren Daishonin was painted in the 14th-15th Century, and is kept at Nichiren Shu’s Head Temple, Kuon-ji.

This is the story of Nichiren Dashonin, a Japanese Buddhist priest and philosopher who lived in the thirteenth century and it was his controversial teachings which form the basis of Nichiren Buddhism, a branch of Mahayana Buddhism. Nichiren was born on February 16th 1222 and died on October 13th 1282. Nichiren, also known as Koso, was a Buddhist priest who had various miracles attributed to him and who founded the Nichiren sect of Buddhism, of which Utagawa Kuniyoshi was an adherent.

It was his controversial declaration that only the Lotus Sutra, which is regarded as one of the world’s great religious scriptures and most influential texts contained the highest truth of Buddhist teachings suited for the Third Age of Buddhism. He maintained that the sovereign of Japan and its people should support only this form of Buddhism and eradicate all others. Nichiren on three occasions remonstrated with the government, underlining his wish to guide people with ‘the Lotus Sutra’. However, on each occasion his pleas were rejected.

For twenty years between 1233 and 1253 Nichiren engaged in an intensive study of all of the ten schools of Buddhism which were prevalent in Japan at that time as well as the Chinese classics and secular literature. During these years, he became convinced of the pre-eminence of the Lotus Sutra and in 1253 returned to the temple where he first studied to present his findings. Here Nichiren introduced his teachings supporting a complete return to the Lotus Sutra as based on its original Tendai interpretations arguing that the people and their leaders who followed this form of Buddhism would experience peace and prosperity whereas rulers who supported inferior religious teachings invited disorder and disaster into their realms. However, his teachings angered Kamakura Shogunate and he experienced severe persecution and was exiled.

In 1831, Utagawa Kuniyoshi received a commission to produce a set of prints in remembrance of the 550-year anniversary of the death of Nichiren. The set was known as the Sketches of the Life of the Great Priest or Concise Illustrated Biography of Monk Nichiren.

Tōjō Komatsubara, Eleventh day of Eleventh month, 1264 by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Tōjō Kagenobu, a steward of Tōjō Village in the Nagasa District of Awa Province in Japan was a passionate believer in Nembutsu, a fundamental devotional practice in the Pure Land school of Buddhism, which Nichiren had criticised ten years earlier. Tōjō Kagenobu was so infuriated by Nichiren’s severe criticism of the Pure Land (Jōdo) school that he attempted to have Nichiren seized. For this reason, he had harboured hatred for Nichiren and watched vigilantly for an opportunity to kill him. On November 11th, 1264, while Nichiren was travelling to Komatsubara, the home of his disciple, Kudo Yoshitaka. It was following his return to Awa, the year after he was pardoned from his exile to Itō on the Izu Peninsula. Tojo Kagenobu saw his chance to eliminate Nichiren. He and hundreds of his warriors, including horsemen and swordsmen, ambushed Nichiren at Komatsubara in the Awa Province in November 1264. In the depiction we see Nichiren holding up his mala (rosary), with its sparkling crystals which confused his attackers. Nikkyo, his student and disciple, is seen in the background, crouching. During the bitter fighting, two of his followers were killed and although Nichiren received a sword cut upon his forehead and a broken left hand, he managed to escape. The incident became known by the Nichiren Budhists as the “Komatsubara Persecution“. Tojo Kagenobu, who had led the attack is said to have gone mad and died within three days of this incident.

Nichiren Prays for Rain at the Promontory of Ryozangasaki in Kamakura in 1271

Japan experienced a major drought in the summer of 1271. The government asked Ninshō, a Japanese Shingon Risshu priest and the founder of the Gokuraku-ji, a Budhist temple in Kamakura, to conduct rain rituals. Nichiren, then only a lowly monk, disparaged Ninshō’s supporters, venturing that even he would follow Ninshō if he made it rain in a week. Nichiren was proved right as it did not rain, and he took advantage of the challenge to take on new followers for himself. In the woodblock print we see Nichiren as he prays for rain and is immediately rewarded with a downpour. This event takes place in Kamakura in 1271. The print itself is viewed as the second-greatest design in this famous series. Before us we have a dramatic depiction – the drama in the the heavy downpour, the drama in the waves and drama in Nichiren’s acolytes as they look on, astounded by the miracle they have witnessed. The umbrella at the top of the scene extends into the upper margin and is often trimmed.

Nichiren Saved from Execution at Takinoguchi in Sagami Province

Nichiren’s incessant attacks on the other Buddhist schools led to Hōjō Tokimune, the de facto ruler of Japan, exiling Nichiren to Sado Island under the supervision of Hōjō Nobutoki, the constable of Sado in 1261. However, this threatened exile did not stop Nichiren continuing his attacks on the other factions of Buddhism. The original plan was that Nichiren was to be escorted to Echi, to the residence of Homma Shigetsura, Hōjō Nobutoki’s deputy; from there he was to be taken directly to Sado Island. But Hei no Saemon, a government official and affirmed enemy of Nichiren decided to have him executed as he was being escorted to Homma’s residence. An attempt was made to behead Nichiren at Tatsunokuchi, but it was unsuccessful. Legend has it that as the executioner’s sword was about to come down on Nichiren’s neck, it broke in half. Various other supernatural happenings were alleged to have occurred to prevent and thwart his death. In this third print of the series Nichiren is seen in prayer, kneeling beside a pine tree which is growing close to the ocean. His executioner stands behind him. It depicts him about to be executed when the rays from the sun destroy the executioner’s sword, averting his death. Nichiren’s exile was later carried out as it had been originally planned.

The Star of Wisdom Descends on the Thirteenth Night of the Ninth Month

The fourth print of the portfolio is entitled The Star of Wisdom Descends on the Thirteenth Night of the Ninth Month and depicts Nichiren holding his rosary, standing before an old plum tree, in which appears a shining apparition of the Buddha. Behind him are two officials and a group of armed men. The scene is illuminated by the full moon which bathes the entire vista. Raymond A Bidwell the collector of oriental art and porcelain, wrote an article in 1930 for Artibus Asiae, a semi-annual publication of original scholarly articles, entitled Kuniyoshi III in which he likened Kuniyoshi’s depiction with that of Christian art:

“…the same spirituality and relationship of man to God as was expressed by the Italian primitives in their pictures of God appearing to the saints… Nichiren and the rough soldiers who have him in custody see in adoration and consternation a vision of The Buddha standing in the branches of a leafless plum tree on a clear moonlight night. The intense beauty of the evening sky and moon against the lace like branches of the aged and gnarled plum tree, make you feel that God must manifest himself directly…”

Bidwell’s conclusion was that Kuniyoshi transcended the Italian painters in his successful approach. Raymond A. Bidwell would later go on to donate the largest collection of Kuniyoshi prints in the U.S. to the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts.

…….to be continued.

Most of the information for this site came from various Wikipedia pages.

Vincent van Gogh, the copyist – Part 1 – Japonisme

“…good artists copy but great artists steal…”

This was a quote attributed to Pablo Picasso and one supposes that his utterance referred to the fact that every artist is influenced by what has been done before or during their lifetime. I suppose in some way we all borrow because it has all been done before and we are not the originators but to make an artistic element your own, you have to interpret it your own way with your own approach and in my next two blogs I am looking at an artist who did just that.

My Daily Art Display today looks at three works by Vincent van Gogh which he completed during the latter years of his life. When we think of van Gogh we think of his Sunflower series or works depicting life at Arles but my blog today looks at some of his works which were based on paintings by Japanese artists. They are not exact copies of the actual paintings but they are his versions of them and the likeness between Vincent’s works and the originals is clearly observable and in the title he gives them he always attributes them to the Japanese printmaker. In a way the copies were his translation of the originals. Through his use of colour and technique, which often incorporated his trademark “swirls”, he made them his own and for many, including his brother Theo, they were his finest works. So why did Van Gogh decide to make his own copies of other artists’ works? I suppose to find the answer to this question one has to understand what was happening at the time and the situation Vincent found himself when he made these “copies”.

Around the time Van Gogh was born there was a fashion known as Japonisme emerging in Western Europe. The term Japonisme, or Japonism, was a French term that was first used by Jules Claretie in his book L’Art Francais en 1872, and it referred to the influence of Japanese art on Western art. The Japonisme trend became very popular in France and the Netherlands. One has to remember that up until the mid nineteenth century there was no trade between Europe and Japan as the political and military power of Japan was in the hands of the shoguns, and the country was virtually isolated from the rest of the world. It was not until 1854 that the Japanese rulers sanctioned trade with the West and it was then that Japanese art with its woodcuts, ornamental fans, and delicately painted screens became available to the people in the likes of France and the Netherlands. This love of Japanese artwork became even more fashionable following the great World’s Fair in 1862, which was held in London, where such Japanese art was on display. At around this time the Japanese woodblock prints, known as ukiyo-e became popular. They featured many motifs from those of landscapes and the Japanese love of nature to those illustrating the pleasures of city life such as theatres, restaurants, teahouses, geisha and courtesans and were often simply used as posters advertising theatre performances and brothels. Sometimes they featured portraits of popular actors and beautiful teahouse girls. They became very popular in Europe and a source of artistic inspiration for the artists of the time, whether they were Impressionists, Post Impressionists or Cubists.

Vincent van Gogh loved Japanese art. His brother, Theo, ran an art gallery in Montmartre and it was here that Vincent first came into contact with ukiyo-e. He was also fortunate that his apartment was situated next to the Bing Gallery where the German owner Samuel Bing, an art dealer and importer of Japanese artworks, had thousands of Japanese prints for sale. Van Gogh would spend hours there studying and admiring this “new” form of art and he soon became an avid collector of ukiyo-e and built up a collection of hundreds of prints. He even organized an exhibition of his own collection in the spring of 1887 at the Café du Tambourin, a popular meeting place of artists.

Left: Evening Shower at Atake and the Great Bridge by HiroshigeRight:The Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige) by van Gogh — Left: Evening Shower at Atake and the Great Bridge by Hiroshige
Right:The Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige) by van Gogh

Van Gogh especially liked the works by Utagawa Hiroshige and in 1887 completed his version of Hiroshige’s Evening Shower at Atake and the Great Bridge, which was part of his collection. Van Gogh simply entitled his work The Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige). With his version, van Gogh filled the border of his painting with a number of calligraphic figures which he had copied from other prints in his collection. In van Gogh’s version, he used different colours which were far brighter than those used by Hiroshige and van Gogh spent more attention to colour contrasts which he used to enhance his version.

Hiroshige's-Plum-Tree — Left: Plum Park in Kameido by Hiroshige
Right: Japonaiserie Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige).by van Gogh

Another of Hiroshige’s woodblock prints which van Gogh copied as a painting was 亀戸梅屋舗 Kameido Umeyashiki (Plum Park in Kameido), which was published in November 1857. It was number 30 in a series of 119 ukiyo-e prints made by Utagawa Hiroshige and Hiroshige II. Hiroshige II was Utagawa’s student and adopted son. Utagawa Hiroshige died in 1858 and his adopted son completed the series. This series of woodcut prints was published in serialized form between May 1856 and April 1859 and was entitled One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Edo was the former name of Tokyo, and it was a series of depictions of famous sights around the Japanese city. In 1887, Van Gogh rendered his own version of this print under the title Japonaiserie Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige).

My final example of Van Gogh’s love of Japanese woodcut prints and his desire to produce his own version is his copying of Keisai Eisen’s print entitled A Courtesan, Nishiki-e, which was made around 1820. Van Gogh probably came across this print when it appeared on the front cover of the May 1886 special edition of the Paris Illustré with the front page title of Le Japon. It was this print which Van Gogh used for his painting entitled The Courtesan (after Eisen). Vincent’s painting is another fine example of his interest and love of Japanese art.

: Van Gogh’s tracing for The Courtesan
(Van Gogh Museum)

To produce a copy of Eisen’s work van Gogh actually traced the picture on the magazine’s front cover and then enlarged it. He then set about giving the courtesan Nishiki a colourful kimono and placed her against a framed bright yellow background. The framed painting of the woman is then surrounded by a watery landscape along with water lilies, a frog on a lily pad and a pair of cranes wading in the water and in the centre top of the background we can just make out two men in a boat. It is not unusual to have frogs depicted sitting serenely on lily pads or wading birds such as cranes in watery scenes but van Gogh’s choice of these two types of creatures was not purely accidental as in France, during his time, prostitutes were often referred to as grues which is the French word for cranes, and grenouilles, which is French for frogs, and therefore van Gogh could be reminding us that Nishiki was a courtesan, an escort or mistress of a wealthy client, a euphemistic term for a prostitute.

In my next blog I will look at some of the European painters whose work inspired van Gogh to render his own version of their paintings.

I suppose you may wonder why I should choose van Gogh for the Christmas edition of my blog when a more seasonal painting by Thomas Kincaid would have been more appropriate. Actually there is a connection between van Gogh and this Christmas and that is because for my Christmas present to myself. I bought myself the six-volume edition of Van Gogh’s letters. Very expensive, totally inexcusable but then, maybe I deserved the present!!!!!

Happy Christmas to you all.