Japanese Prints

The lion dance is instrumental in scaring demons away and placating the gods. The common Japanese belief is that earthquakes, tsunami, poor harvests, famine and epidemics are caused by an angry god. If you fear, respect and celebrate your god, you might be protected. In the lion dance, angry god has a bright red face, shining golden eyes. God is breathing fire through the nose, opening his large mouth and gnashing his teeth. The brave lion made evil spirits go away.

Sugimura Jihei effectively used disposition of the blacks in conjunction with a rich linear decoration and tan coloring in his Lion Dance, while Suzuki Harunobu preferred nishiki-e style for his version of Lion Dance.

Top Picture: Lion Dance by Sugimura Jihei

Bottom Picture: Lion Dance by Suzuki Harunobu

Lion dance takes its origin from China about a thousand years ago. The lion is featured in Buddhist folklore as a guardian creature. Different versions and styles of the lion dance exist in mainland Japan, Okinawa, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore.

The story of Nian is the most common source of Chinese Lion Dance. Legend says that a monster was attacking a small village; eating the cattle, rice and villagers. One day, a Buddhist monk advised the villagers to build a their own ‘monster’. The next year, when Nian came back (it coms once a year), the villagers demonstrated their ‘monster’, making noise, banging drums, throwing firecrackers. Scared Nian fled the village. Since this day, the Chinese celebrate their victory of Nian and scare away bad demons. away.

The women in Kiyonaga’s prints are often described as seeming fuller and more mature than those of his predecessor Harunobu, whose prints often depict women who seem younger and thinner. Though a difference of personal styles accounts for this primarily, it also comes in part from Kiyonaga’s use of larger sheets of paper (oban, rather than chuban or hosoban). Also, a great proportion of Kiyonaga’s work is in diptych or triptych form, making the work seem larger and more impressive overall.

In the field of bijinga, only the works of Suzuki Harunobu and a handful of others are generally regarded comparable with those of Kiyonaga. Kiyonaga produced a great many bijinga prints in the 1780s, and this is generally regarded as his high point; this is particularly true because he nearly stopped doing art entirely in the early 1790s.

Just as Kiyonaga can be said to have replaced the earlier Harunobu as the most popular bijinga artist of his time, so Kiyonaga can be said to have been replaced by Utamaro, whose women are even more full and mature than those of the former.

Kiyonaga’s Kabuki prints, depicting scenes on stage and the like, show a great attention to detail, and seek to depict real Kabuki scenes, rather than idealized versions. There is something very plain about much of his depictions, showing that those depicted are in fact actors and not the true idealized characters they represent; however, he did not make the leap to portraying the individual features and personalities of the actors as some other artists (including the Katsukawa school) did. Some scholars label his style as an important intermediary step leading to the bombastic, yet realistic, style of Sharaku.

This fragment of 19th century woodblock print depicts brewing of soy sauce at Noda factory, located East of Edo. The Japanese soy sauce was exported to Europe as early as the 17th century.

Approximately 14 local ukiyo-e enthusiasts from San Mateo area are holding an Exhibition of Japanese Prints in the Kobayashi Ventures Hall in Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, running from Monday September 10 to Friday September 21.

Most of the exhibited japanese prints are works of Hiroshige, Harunobu, Moronobu, Yoshitoshi and modern Japanese artists. A large selection of ukiyo-e representing different periods, genres and artists promises an exciting exhibition says organiser Shigeo Kobayashi who has been collecting Japanese prints for thirty years now.

The launch of this exhibition will take place on Monday September 10 at 21.00 pm with a sushi buffet reception.

People of Inakadate village grow rice replicating ukiyo-e works by Sharaku and Utamaro. The artistic paddies bring crowds of tourists to otherwise unremarkable village.