Art Forms Entwined

Although the mainstream ukiyo-e tradition of courtesan and actor prints was dependent on subjects and themes developed during the Edo period (1600-1868), Japanese bird-and-flower prints (kachoga) drew heavily upon Chinese and Japanese painting traditions evolved in earlier centuries. These enduring art forms provided inspiration in composition, technique, and meaning. The inexpensive medium of the printed book, in turn, served as a means of spreading artistic ideas more widely. Printed books of sketches, known as gafu, were popular from the mid-18th century on and served to proclaim an artist’s skill and disseminate his style.

Chinese painting had long been known in Japan, but with the introduction of Chinese printed books such as the Mustard Seed Garden Manual (Chin. Jieziyuan hampu; Jap. Kaishien gaden), painting exemplars became more readily available. Japanese books such as the Ransai gafu transmitted Chinese-style compositions as they were known through artists such as Shen Quan (1682-1760?), active in the city of Nagasaki between 1731 and 1733. The Umpitsu soga of 1749 (shown in the center case) is one of the earliest Japanese printed books to simulate the rough brushwork and the unevenness of the painted ink line, qualities the Japanese first learned from Chinese painting.

Other prints that imitate rough brushwork are also included in this exhibition, the most dramatic of which are the paired painted and printed depictions of a crow attributed to Kyosai (1831-1889). This eccentric and creative artist is also represented in the gallery by a book that preserves some of his sketches (Kyosai donga). Another group of prints illustrates the transfer of graded ink tones into the medium of the woodblock print, along with the dissolution of outlines. In these works, black-ink contours are often omitted completely. Jakuchu (1716-1800), an innovative artist active in Kyoto, attempted to make the woodblock technique replicate a Chinese rubbing printed with a black ground. His paintings and prints are often highly decorative, and both refer in part to Chinese models.

The rich variety of compositions and techniques seen in this exhibition demonstrate the fertile exchange between the arts of painting and printmaking and illustrates how the tradition of Japanese bird-and-flower prints was enriched by a wide range of Chinese and Japanese painting traditions.