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- 36. Kiyohiro Torii
(active 1737-76)
Traveller smoking tobacco while viewing Mt. Fuji / Voyageur fumant en regardant le mont Fuji Woodblock print
OPPOSITE
37 Utamaro Kitagawa
(1756-1806)
Mother with children / Mere et enfants Woodblock print
the conspicuous consumption by this class, showing their penchants for short-lived trends and fads as well as the human desire for love and profit. The aristocratic class viewed the work of ukiyo-e artists as garish, vulgar, cheap and tawdry. They felt these works were beneath the dignity of a noble or samurai, who preferred to own expensive scrolls by recognized masters.
Ukiyo-e began as a school of painting that satisfied the tastes of the common people, but by the late 17th century demand had grown dramatically, necessitating the mass production of this style of painting. Woodblock prints were the easiest form to mass-produce, for which ukiyo-e is principally known today. As production increased, prices were lowered and the works became more widely distributed. Consequently, it became the true art of the masses and marked the flourishing of popular culture. The cheap mass production of woodblock prints allowed the lower classes an opportunity to enjoy art, which was previously the monopoly of the upper classes. Ukiyo-e prints were intimately associated with a thriving subculture of the merchants, illustrating their exciting and fast-paced lives with great flare and variety. However, the true motivating factor for producing ukiyo-e prints was a commercial venture to make profit and not �art for art�s sake.� Ukiyo-e not only provided a portrait of the ordinary people, but also a pictorial record of public manners, morals and tastes. Ukiyo-e offer unrivalled material for the socio-economic study of daily life in Edo Japan, revealing aspects of society and the people such as the different social classes, their colourful festivals, the costumes they wore, ladies� hairstyles, the armour and weapons of their warriors, their forms of entertainment, their popular scenic spots, the houses they lived in, historical events, and their beliefs in the supernatural. Ukiyo-e brilliantly show the joys and sorrows, the poverty and affluence, the realism and fantasy of the lives of the people of Edo Japan. Woodblock prints were not only produced in Edo city but also in Osaka, which developed prints in a smaller size, largely focused on Kabuki actors.
The greatest woodblock print artists of the Edo period were Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694), Suzuki Harunobu (1725-70), Torii Kiyonaga (1664-1729), Kitagawa Utamaro (1754-1806), Sharaku, (active 1794-95), Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858). Moronobu, the first great woodblock artist, worked in monochrome black and white prints, sometimes with hand-coloured orange- red additions. Harunobu was the first master of the multicoloured print nishiki-e (brocade print). Kiyonaga was noted for his images of statuesque courtesans, while Utamaro raised the depiction of women to a new and outstanding level. Sharaku produced an amazing collection of eerie satirical works on Kabuki actors. The
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