If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
A native of Nagasaki, Japan, Kakutei (1722-1785) became a Zen monk in the Ôbaku School, which had been founded by emigré monks from China in the mid-seventeenth century. While he was a resident of the Seifuku-ji monastery in Nagasaki, Kakutei studied painting with Kumashiro Yûhi (1693/1713–1772), who in turn had studied Chinese decorative bird-and-flower painting with Shen Nanpin, a merchant-artist who had visited Nagasakin in the early 1770s. When Kakutei was later promoted to a position at Shiun'in, a subtemple within the vast Obaku headquarters monastery of Manpukuji, he brought the new style to the Kyoto region. He became close friends with Yanagisawa Kien (1706–58), who would inscribe many of his paintings. Kien in turn had an major influence on the growth of Chinese-style painting in 18th century Kyoto. Kakutei died in Edo (modern Tokyo).
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Although the artist portrays a woman kneeling in front of an elongated mirror to finish styling her coiffure, her lustrous hair and colorful kimono are the focus of this print. The artist was an expert in using woodblock prints to present modern women in traditional costume.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Utamaro owed his greatest artistic debt to Kiyonaga (1752–1815). He added a strong element of eroticism and an intuitive grasp of female psychology to Kiyonaga’s graceful, lifelike portrayals of women. Like Harunobu, Utamaro was a great master of ukiyo-e in the portrayal of femininity and love, but the two had different approaches. In addition to his figure studies of women, Utamaro also drew landscapes, birds, animals, and flower studies, and a large number of book illustrations. (MW)
He had numerous pupils and followers who may be classed as the Toriyama school, taking the name from Toriyama Skiyen, the teacher of Utamaro. Many prints signed Utamaro are undoubtedly the work of his pupils, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Eizan was the son of Kikugawa Eiji, a Kanô-style painter and maker of fans. He first studied painting from his father, and later fron the literati artist Suzuki Nanrei. His paintings show a strong Kanô influence, as well as close study of the work of Utamarô and Hokusai. From the early 1800s until he retired in about 1830, he was a leading designer of bijinga; he also did actor prints and erotica.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
In the late seventeenth century, three brothers in the Wang family prepared the illustrations for what would become the most lavish woodlblock print book made in China to that date: The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting (Jiezi yuan hua zhuan / Chieh-tzu-yüan hua-chuan). A thirteen-volume compendium of Chinese painting styles, The Mustard Seed Garden did for Chinese painting what the lithograph did for European painting in the age before photography: it was the means by which the work of famous artists became known to a vast audience across time and space. Every aspiring artist in China, and many in Korea and Japan as well, studied its pages of both full compositions and isolated motifs.
The name of the book is taken from the country residence of author of the preface, the essayist and playwright Li Yu / Li Yü óõãô (1611–80). The first edition, published in the southern urban center of Nanjing / Nanking over the course of two decades, was a best seller. Innumerable reprint editions were issued in China (the pages shown here are from an edition published in the 1880s) and Japan, and the first full English translation and reproduction appeared in the 1950s.
Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
Exhibited in "Flora and Fauna in Chinese Art," April 6, 2002 - December 1, 2002.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Though Kiyonaga was the fourth head of the Torii school, he very early in his artistic career abandoned the traditional actor-print favored by that school. It was in him, his immediate followers, and his contemporaries that the color print reached its highest level of excellence. It is also in Kiyonaga’s work that we see the portraiture of women raised to its most elegant refinement, equaled only by Katsukawa Shuncho (active ca. 1780-–1795).
Kiyonaga was also the first to develop the three- and five-sheet print into a single design. Though frequently each sheet is noticeably complete in itself and can be shown as a separate unit, the full effect of the artist’s intention is apparent only in the whole composition.
In a reversal of the usual male gaze, here a young woman looks on as a young man’s legs are exposed in a lively game of kemari, a traditional Japanese sport with elements of soccer and "hacky-sack." Kiyonaga has given us another example of the Edoite’s taste for visual puns, or mitate. The figures in the scene are dressed as late-eighteenth-century urban commoners; indeed, we may read the fence that separates them as the boundary of the Yoshiwara pleasure district, the female as a low-ranking servant, and the male as a young dandy of the merchant class. But kemari was a game of the imperial court. The oddity of the juxtaposition would immediately signal to savvy viewers that this is a modern re-enactment of a famous scene in The Tale of Genji, in which a princess falls in love with a young courtier while she watches him playing kemari on the palace grounds.
M. Graybill
"Courtesans, Cross-Dressers, and the Girl Next Door Images of the Feminine in Japanese Popular Prints"
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Utamaro owed his greatest artistic debt to Kiyonaga (1752–1815). He added a strong element of eroticism and an intuitive grasp of female psychology to Kiyonaga’s graceful, lifelike portrayals of women. Like Harunobu, Utamaro was a great master of ukiyo-e in the portrayal of femininity and love, but the two had different approaches. In addition to his figure studies of women, Utamaro also drew landscapes, birds, animals, and flower studies, and a large number of book illustrations. (MW)
He had numerous pupils and followers who may be classed as the Toriyama school, taking the name from Toriyama Skiyen, the teacher of Utamaro. Many prints signed Utamaro are undoubtedly the work of his pupils, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them.
"Women of all occupations" was a popular theme in woodblock prints of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Kitagawa Utamaro, one of the leading artists of Edo (modern Tokyo), renders this version with mildly erotic overtones. This image is the twelfth and last in a series depicting women making silk.
This reproduction of a famous print tells us much about textiles for urban commoners at time. The seated woman spinning thread wears a green kosode (short-sleeved kimono) with a paste-resist landscape design. Her companion at the loom wears an indigo-dyed robe with an overall stencil-print design of stylized blossoms, and the standing figure wears a simple woven plaid. Cotton textiles dyed in these techniques were the most common for everyday wear in the cities.
Exhibited in "Japanese Costumes & Ceramics, Past & Present," October 2001-February 2002. Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
This painted vertical panel is from the interior of an 18th century residence in Damascus, Syria. The Museum owns a second piece from the same residence, a cornice with a calligraphic inscription: 1961/2.14.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
There came an archimage, one deft of hand Who made the moon-faced dame bemused with wine, Then pierced her side while she was all unconscious, And having turned the infant's head aright Delivered her uninjured. None had seen A thing so strange. The babe was like a lion, A hero tall and fair to look upon.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
