Japanese prints inspired Impressionists

By Victoria Gail-White
Special to The Advertiser

•	'Influencing Paris: Japanese Prints Collected by European Artists' 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 1-5 p.m. Sundays, through June 27 Asian Galleries, Honolulu Academy of Arts 532-8701

Julia White, curator of Asian Art, selected 22 prints from the collection to complement the museum's epic "Japan & Paris" exhibit and to show the cross-fertilization between Eastern and Western artists. These fine prints consist of portraits of kabuki actors (yakusha-e), beautiful women of Edo (bijin-ga), landscapes and images of nature. Also included in this exhibit are 15 volumes known as "Hokusai Manga," illustrated books of the renowned artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). The opened books show small studies of people involved in various daily activities, animals, flowers and landscapes.

The original concept of ukiyo-e came from the Buddhist belief that the joys of this world are transient, and detachment from these activities leads to enlightenment. However, this morphed into the notion that, if these joys are fleeting, one should enjoy them to the fullest. These joys or the common man's daily pleasures were otherwise known as the floating world (ukiyo), and with the addition of the "e," which means picture, became ukiyo-e. The word is now used to describe woodblock prints in general.

Ukiyo-e is a collaborative effort among an artist, block cutter, printer and publisher. The artist paints a preparatory sketch with ink lines. After the official censors (nanushi) approve it, it passes to a block carver. The carver chisels out the design on wild-cherry wood aged to prevent warping.

The first outline block is called a key block. The artist then selects colors for the print from the key block image, and other blocks are cut — one for each color. Some prints contain 15 or more colors. Registration devices to line up each color are also carved into the blocks.

The printer, who also makes vegetable and mineral inks, applies pigment to the block with a brush. Moist mulberry paper (kozo) is laid down on the block and the pigment is rubbed into it with a baren (a circular flat pad made of bamboo sheath wrapped around a flat coil of straw or bamboo fiber).

The printing process involves registering each block so that the colors line up correctly. Generally, the lighter colors and the blocks with smaller printed areas are printed first. The thicker black lines are printed last. Gradations and special effects, such as the use of mica, are often incorporated into the printing process.

Hokusai's "Katsushika in Kai Province" (1830-35) is an excellent example of gradations in blues.

Although the first monochromatic ukiyo-e prints emerged in the late 16th century, it wasn't until the 18th century, with the advancement of woodblock printing techniques producing multicolored prints, that they became a popular art form.

The prints could be mass-produced, with runs of up to 20,000.

In the 1850s, trade agreements between Japan and the West circulated these prints and exposed Japanese artists to Western art. In 1890, the ƒcole des Beaux Arts in Paris exhibited a show of Japanese prints.

On seeing this show, the Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt wrote to her colleague Berthe Morisot, "Seriously, you must not miss that. You who want to make color prints couldn't dream of anything more beautiful. I dream of it and don't think of anything else but color on copper. You must see the Japanese ..."

In Tokyo in 1893, an exhibit of French Impressionist paintings was shown.

Both exhibits demonstrate the attraction and fascination that the public, artists and collectors of both worlds had for each other.

Claude Monet collected the prints of Suzuki Harunobu (1724-1770), who developed the method for multicolor printing (nishiki-e or brocade prints). Monet also collected Katsushika Hokusai's (1760-1849) spectacular series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji," one of which, the classic, "Fuji in Clear Weather" (1823-1831), is on display here. Monet's love of what the French called Japonisme is evident throughout his home and garden, now a museum, in Giverney. Ukiyo-e prints hang in the house, and a Japanese bridge in his garden appears in his oil painting "The Water Lily Pond."

Edgar Degas studied Hokusai's collected prints and used the concepts for the way he positioned figures in many of his paintings of ballet dancers.

Vincent Van Gogh owned ukiyo-e courtesan prints and copied one into the background of his oil painting "Pere Tanguy" (1887). He copied Utagawa Hiroshige's (1797-1858) "Plum Garden at Kameido" (in this exhibit) as an oil painting titled, "Japonaiserie: Flowering Plum Tree" (1887). Van Gogh also used ukiyo-e design principles — the decorative rather than descriptive use of color, bold shapes and asymmetry — in his oil on canvas "The Sower" (1888).

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec routinely applied the language of ukiyo-e to his prints and paintings. Like ukiyo-e artists, he was fascinated with dancers, actors and the theater. He used the flat black background device found in Suzuki Harunobu's "Catching Fireflies" (1765-70) for his advertising posters.

He integrated the use of gold dust, instead of the silvery mica used by ukiyo-e artists, to make an image stand out. In his poster "May Milton" (1985), on display in the "European Modernism, 1860-1930: Prints from the Academy's Collection" in the Graphic Arts Gallery, Toulouse-Lautrec employed the dark flat background to exaggerate the animated gesture of the English dancer. The floor angle, Milton's off-centered position and the seal-like signature all signify ukiyo-e influences.

Paul Gauguin used the circular- window framing technique seen in Utagawa Hiroshige's "Suijin Grove, the Uchi River and Sekiya Village from the Vicinity of Masaki" (1857) in his painting "La Belle Angele" (1899).

Also included in the exhibit are two prints by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864), which illustrate the Western influence on Japanese artists. Here, imaginary Western-style frames surround the prints.

This installation of ukiyo-e is striking against the lapis lazuli walls. Two intricate mid-20th century woman's ceremonial kimonos also are on display. Because these prints are delicate and prone to fading, the light in the room is motion-sensitive. You might need to sway and swoon a little to keep the lights on.