We have always been taught that the 1760s would see quite drastic changes, like someone pushing the button and lo and behold, there is the Floating World in multicolour. But is there more than just the birth of full-colour printing, the development of the so-called ‘brocade prints,’ nishikie (錦繪). And is there any effect of…
Japanese Popular Print Culture – A Critical Review – 1730-50s (Appendix)
Summarizing: 1730s Prints: 1) Nishimura Shigenobu [25]; 2) Torii Kiyomasu II [21]; 3) Okumura Masanobu [20]. ((66)) 1730s Picture books: 1) Nishikawa Sukenobu [14/4]; 2) Takagi Sadatake [4/0/1]; 3) Okumura Masanobu [1/2]. ((26)) 1740s Prints: 1) Okumura Masanobu [41]; 2) Torii Kiyomasu II / Torii Kiyonobu II [36]; 3) Ishikawa Toyonobu [30]. ((107)) 1740s Picture…
Japanese Popular Print Culture – A Critical Review – 1730-50s (Part 4)
A closer look at single prints in the 1730s through the 1750s – Perspective prints As for ukie, these seem to be an innovation that we owe to the visionary Okumura Masanobu, generally believed to date from 1739 onwards.[6] This date is based on a design after a theatrical performance in III/1739 of the play…
Japanese Popular Print Culture – A Critical Review – 1730-50s (Part 3)
A closer look at single prints in the 1730s through the 1750s – Pillar prints We already saw three new developments in the format of single prints: the first examples of printing just two colours, the benizurie, from 1744, and pillar prints, or hashirae, as an experiment with a quite demanding surface to work with,…
Japanese Popular Print Culture – A Critical Review – 1730-50s (Part 2)
Picture books in the years from the 1730s through the 1750s - General For much of this period, Nishikawa Sukenobu and Okumura Masanobu play a major role, Sukenobu ranking first with eighteen titles in the 1730s, and Okumura Masanobu ranking third, with only three titles. In the 1740s, Sukenobu is still holding the first position,…
Japanese Popular Print Culture – A Critical Review – 1730-50s (Part 1 – Revised)
Prints in the years from the 1730s through the 1750s - General By the 1730s, hand-coloured tane prints, actually last seen in 1723, definitely belong to the past. By then, until the early 1750s, or more precisely until 1752, as far as we know, equally hand-coloured lacquer prints, urushie, are the standard. But we are…
Japanese Popular Print Culture – A Critical Review – 1700s-1720s (Part 4)
Going back to single print production in the early eighteenth century, it is quite helpful to have a more realistic idea of production figures for the novel phenomenon of single prints, but it may even be more important to apply the 3.5 multiplication factor to the genre of prints of actors in role. The figure…
Japanese Popular Print Culture – A Critical Review – 1700s-1720s (Part 3)
Assessing the first three decades of the 18th century Well then, having a closer look at three decades of print publishing next to a just a little older tradition of picture books, what can we say. Looking at numbers, we might be looking at some 55 single prints in the period from the 1670s, 1680s,…
Japanese Popular Print Culture – A Critical Review – 1700s-1720s (Part 2)
Single prints in the early 18th century Moving on now to the young and upcoming tradition of single prints, it is somewhat of a problem to exactly find their beginning. Some would want to already consider some of the handscroll-like works that Moronobu designed from the mid-1670s as the beginning of single prints, ichimaie, his…
Japanese Popular Print Culture – A Critical Review – 1700s-1720s (Part 1)
Illustrated books in the early eighteenth century Torii Kiyonobu is probably the first name that comes to mind for this period, but, as far as book production in the 1700s is concerned, he is responsible for only a few erotic works. In fact, the future is in Kyoto, notably with Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671-1751, act. 1700-50).…