Bijin-ga (Beautiful Women) Pt1

Beauty with a pipe

Utamaro was a Japanese artist. He is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings, and is best known for his bijin ōkubi-e "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" of the 1790s. After producing a few successful books, Utamaro and the publisher Tsutaya launched an innovative type of bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) series. Utamaro’s close-up portraits straightforwardly captured the facial expressions of his models, vividly evoking their personalities despite their anonymity.

Woman Wiping Sweat ca1793

Fukaku Shinobu Koi, 

which in 2016 set the record price for an ukiyo-e print sold at auction at €745000

Sugatami Shichinin Keshō 

 (姿見七人化粧, "Seven Women Applying Make-up Using a Mirror", c. 1792–93)

Naniwara Teahouse Waitress Okita ca1793

Publisher: Tsutaya Jūzaburō

Okita was a beautiful waitress at the Naniwaya tea-house near Asakusa Temple in the city of Edo. When Utamaro created this print of her, she would have been about fifteen years old. Utamaro also included a cartouche in the shape of a poem card in the upper left portion of the print with a poem by Katsura-no-Mayuzumi that further attests to the allure of Okita:

Resting at the tea-house in Naniwaya district,
Myriad as the reeds of Naniwa Bay
Art those who come running at the name of this shop
Each passerby has to stop.

Fancy-free Type, 1792-1793

Publisher: Tsutaya Jūzaburōe

The woman shown here is identified on the print as the “fickle type.” To convey that quality, Utamaro has her casting a glance over her shoulder, hoping to catch the eye of an interested suitor as she returns, careless and disheveled, from the bath.

Portrait of Tomimoto Toyohina (singer), 1795-1796
Publisher: Ōmiya Gonkurō
This composition is from a six-print series comprising half-length portraits of famous beauties. The women are not identified directly, but their names are given in hanji-e, or picture riddles, adjoining the title cartouche. Utamaro may have used this device to circumvent an edict issued in 1793 that prohibited the naming of women in ukiyo-e prints unless they were prostitutes. Here, a lottery box (tomi), duckweed (mo), and a whetstone (to) serve to “spell” Tomimoto; a door (to), a lantern to suggest night (yo), and a doll (hina) signify Toyohina. This practice ceased in 1796 when a new proclamation specifically forbade the use of picture riddles.

Three Beauties of the Present Day (oji san bijin)  
From Bijin-ga (Pictures of Beautiful Women) 1793

Picture of the Lower Class, c. 1794-1795
Publisher: Wakasaya Yoichi
In this print, Utamaro suggests the low social class of two women through their clothing and deportment. Rather than showing them primly posed with carefully coiffeured hair and luxurious robes, he depicts them with slightly disheveled hair and dressed in simple cotton kimonos. Furthermore, the seated woman has immodestly opened the front of her robe to cool herself with a fan.

 Woman letter writing

Comparing the charms of five beauties

Love of a farmers wife

Matsuō's Wife Chiyo from the Play "Tenarai kagami"

A beauty after her bath

Bijin-ga (Female Beauties) - Ukiyo-e "Pictures of the Floating World"-

Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica. The term ukiyo-e (浮世絵 IPA: [u.ki.jo.e]) translates as "picture[s] of the floating world".

The Floating World culture developed in Yoshiwara, the licensed red-light district of Edo (modern Tokyo), which was the site of many brothels, chashitsu, and kabuki theaters frequented by Japan's growing middle class. ... The ukiyo culture also arose in other cities such as Osaka and Kyoto.

Ukiyo-e  has 6 sub genres, shunga is the primary genre of this site however lets not forget this fantastic genre of  "female beauties".   

Utamaro's Beautiful Women 

Utagawa Kuniyasu (歌川 国安, 1794–1832) 

Kuniyasa was a Japanese artist best known for his prints in the ukiyo-e style as a member of the Utagawa school.

 

Kikukawa Eizan (菊川 英山, 1787 – July 17, 1867)

Read the Ukiyo-e wiki page HERE

Hokusai beyond the Great Wave - Exhibition

Experience the beautiful and sublime work of one of Japan’s greatest artists.

25 May – 13 August 2017

Ticket availability is limited, so you are strongly advised to book tickets online in advance to avoid disappointment.
Due to popular demand, the exhibition now has extended opening hours at weekends – check the ticket timeslots for the latest availability.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/hokusai.aspx

Suzuki Harunobu (鈴木 春信) - Artist Intro

ARTIST: Suzuki Harunobu (鈴木 春信)
BORN: c. 1725
DIED:  15 July 1770
NOTES: Harunobu was an innovator, the first to produce full-color prints (nishiki-e) in 1765, rendering obsolete the former modes of two- and three-color prints. Harunobu used many special techniques, and depicted a wide variety of subjects, from classical poems to contemporary beauties. Like many artists of his day, Harunobu also produced a number of shunga, or erotic images. During his lifetime and shortly afterwards, many artists imitated his style. A few, such as Harushige, even boasted of their ability to forge the work of the great master. Much about Harunobu's life is unknown.

His birthplace and birthdate are unknown, but it is believed he grew up in Kyoto. It is said he was forty-six at his death in 1770.

Works include Elegant Amorous Mane'emon


Other examples;

A young woman in a summer shower

The Jewel River of Plovers, a Famous Place in Mutsu Province (Chidori no Tamagawa, Mutsu meisho), from an untitled series of Six Jewel Rivers (Mu Tamagawa)

A Cotton Picker (Watatsumi onna)

More information here

Eisei Bunko Museum in Tokyo

On September 19 2015, the Eisei Bunko Museum in Tokyo bravely unveiled an exhibition of traditional Japanese erotic art called shunga. Despite the historical nature of the pieces, the art show doesn’t come without a fair bit of controversy: shunga is still considered obscene in many circles, and despite a successful showing and critically acclaimed display at the British Museum in 2013, the exhibition was turned down by over ten Japanese museums before Eisei Bunko bit the bullet.
After much hand-wringing and controversy, the first-ever exhibition of traditional Japanese erotic art (shunga, literally 'spring pictures') in this country is finally happening. From September on, visitors can rest their eyes on around 120 pieces by the likes of Hokusai, Utamaro and Suzuki Harunobu – but you'll need to be 18 or older to enter.

Utamaro - Triptych: Women Sewing

Kitagawa Utamaro Collection

Three women seated, sorting and sewing fabrics; with three children and cat playing.

FORMAT: nishiki-e print (created by carving a separate woodblock for every colour). Size approx Ōban 15½ by 10½ inches (39 by 26.5 cm) - Actual 37.3x24.8cm Right / 37.2x24.8cm Middle / 37.2x24.7cm Left. Reproduced on 170gsm white paper.

PUBLISHER: Uemura Yohei (上村与兵衛) ca 1794-5

Utamaro depicted more types of women, in various activities, than any other Ukiyo-e artist. A group of respectable married women, surrounded by their children and even a pet cat are working together on a hot summer's day folding and mending obi sashes.

On the right, two of them stretch and fold a red silk sash tie-dyed with a white 'starfish' pattern. A teenage girl examines an insect, perhaps a firefly, in its tiny cage.

 A little boy teases a cat with its reflection in a mirror.

On the left, the sewing equipment scattered on the floor suggests that this woman is holding up the sash to check a mend she has just made in the fine gauze, while a baby plays with its mother's fan. . This gives Utamaro a chance to exploit one of his favourite technical tricks of depicting figures seen through gauze.

Although the scene is one of warm domesticity, Utamaro still introduces a note of eroticismin the partially revealed breasts and legs of the figures clad lightly against the summer heat.

Isoda Koryusai - Furyu juniki no eika

Isoda Koryusai Collection

 Furyu juniki no eika

 Prosperous Flowers of the Elegant Twelve Seasons

PRINTS: a set of twelve chuban (mid-size format) designs
DATE: published around 1772-73.
NOTES:

PRINT1 - A young boy rubbing an ink-stick on an ink-stone, while his partner sleeps or is she.
Actually he is touching her body at the back and she is letting him. They haveing a good time so we should not bother them.
Wait!
Someone is looking at them through a hole in the sliding door!!

PRINT2 - A young woman watching a man in a fox-mask making love to his partner under a cherry tree.

PRINT3 - The man takes the woman by surprise as she is about to get into the ofuro (bathtub).

PRINT4 - A man making love to a sleeping woman underneath a mosquito net.

PRINT5 - A father making love to his wife while she and her oldest son practice calligraphy

PRINT6 - An aggressive shunga scene showing the rape of a young girl. A falconer forces the girl down to the ground in the middle of grass and Japanese clover and mishandles her violently. The girl tries to push the man away, but he is obviously too strong for her. The falcon, fastened to the man’s wrist with a rope, watches the scene from the air.

 The haiku poem reads:

Arataka no matataku mo nashi
tama nashi

A miracle
in the blink
of an eye:
the hare in
the moon.

The meaning of the verse is that in the blink of the eye the form of a hare becomes visible on the moon’s surface, just like the falconer who suddenly crosses the path of the lovely young girl.

PRINT7 - A young couple making love while older man sleeps.

PRINT8 - A couple wildly making love in front of a mochi stand.

PRINT9 - A young girl watching couple making love sitting up on the veranda.

PRINT10 - The girl is playing the shamisen (a Japanese traditional instrument with three strings played like a guitar). The boy is accompanying her. Once the singing is done the couple playfully make love on the veranda in winter.

May IOTM

ARTIST: Kitagawa Utamaro
ALBUM: Ehon Warai-jigo

Description:

This image is part of a set and the album may be looked at in greater detail later on. Today is about this image and what is at the heArt of the picture. Many Shunga portray  loving tenderness between couples and this is no exception. The couple are delicately entwined and their gazes clearly tell us they are enjoying the union and in love (maybe husband and wife). It is possible Utamaro used the text on this print to provide a little sexual advice to his viewers/readers. The man and woman are in a traditional position and she is quietly (whispering) sexual dialogue to her partner. Their interlocking limbs and holding each other tightly while he performs. Utamaro indicates to the woman to restrain her pleasure and movement of her pelvid to prolong the pleasure. Finally the white bodies contrast nicely with the dark covers and nicely flowing lines. Making for a extremely excellent composition, narrative and dialogue.