Traditional Japanese painting and engraving.

Again, not about everything at once, but specifically about engravings ukiyo-e. Beautiful word, and what does it mean? We read special sites. For example, Encyclopedia of Japan from A to Z
- and we find out that:

Woodcut technique, or printing from wooden boards, appeared in Japan back in the Heian period (794−1185) along with the advent of Buddhism. Beginning of the 17th century characterized by the appearance of illustrated woodcut books published in mass editions. In these editions, text and illustrations were printed in black.

The first prints using red color (benizuri-e) appeared in mid-18th century V. Gradually, the number of boards for color printing increased, and in 1765 the first multi-color engravings, called “brocade paintings” (nishiki-e), appeared.

Ukiyo-e(which literally translated from Japanese means “pictures of the mortal world”) embodies philosophical contemplation and the emotional fullness of admiring the fullness of mortal existence.

Technically, the art of ukiyo-e is a complex process that requires the highest professionalism at all stages of execution. The final result of the work depended not only on the skill of the artists who drew the sketches, but also on the virtuoso skills of engravers and printers. To create a multi-color image, it was necessary to engrave from two to three to eight boards. The printing was done by hand, which made it possible to create a picturesque halftone effect. The boards were painted by hand, polished, and blown with gold or silver powder.

Japanese prints have become synonymous with sophistication and good taste. At the end of the 19th century, ukiyo-e prints gained popularity all over the world; they were collected by Whistler, Manet, Degas, Goncourt, and Zola. In St. Petersburg, the first exhibition of ukiyo-e prints was held in 1898. Rich collections of such prints exist in the State Hermitage and the Kunstkamera.

The word “ukiyo” in ancient times denoted one of the Buddhist categories and could be translated as “the mortal, changeable world.” At the end of the seventeenth century. Ukiyo began to mean the world of earthly joys and pleasures. Ukiyo-e are pictures of the daily life of the urban class of the Edo period.

Originating in the 17th century. Among the growing third estate, less constrained by canons than painting, engraving was the most widespread and accessible form of art for townspeople. Themes for ukiyo-e prints were often subjects genre stories ukiyo-zoshi, Kabuki plays, classical and modern poetry.
The process of creating ukiyo-e prints involved an artist, a carver, and a printer. The publisher played an important role, studying demand and determining circulation. Often it was he who set the theme of the engraving and influenced the nature of the publication.

The process of creating the engraving looked like this. Artist I made an outline drawing in ink on thin, transparent paper. Engraver, having pasted the drawing face down onto a board of cherry, pear or boxwood, I cut out the first printed form. Then several black and white prints were made, on which the artist designated the intended colors. Cutter produced the required number (sometimes more than thirty) of printing forms, each of which corresponded to one color or tone. Printer, having discussed with artist color scheme, applied vegetable or mineral paint and hand-printed the engraving on wet rice paper.

The collective method of work of the artist, carver and printer, the narrow specialization of the craftsmen, and the guild organization of the process determined the uniqueness of Japanese woodcuts.

The founder of the direction is considered Moronobu Hishikawa, Kichibe (about 1618 - about 1694; according to other sources 1625 - about 1694, 1638−1714), Japanese painter and graphic artist. Lived in Edo. Even the largest representatives of ukiyo-e were Katsushika Hokusai, who is also known as the founder landscape genre in Japanese prints, Ando Hiroshige(1797−1858) - one of the largest Japanese graphic artists.
Hiroshige Born in Edo into the family of a petty samurai, Ando Genemon. Thanks to the early training in the hieroglyphic writing of Tokutaro (the first baby name artist) also had a good understanding of the properties of paper, brush and ink - the main materials of oriental painting.

The first painting, “Mount Fuji in the Snow,” which has survived to this day (Suntory Museum, Tokyo), was painted by the artist at the age of ten. He was fourteen years old when he became an apprentice Toyohiro, founder of the school Utagawa. At the core early works Hiroshige - real events, scenes seen on the streets.

The second stage of creativity was marked by the appearance of landscape engravings. The first series, “Eight Views of Omi,” published in 1825, dedicated to the beauty of Lake Biwa, located in the province of Omi, was depicted by Hiroshige without leaving Edo. The next series, “Ten Views of the Eastern Capital,” released two years later, is dedicated to the artist’s hometown, Edo.

The artist then focuses his attention entirely on landscapes and series of the katega (“flowers and birds”) genre. One of the most famous is the sheet “Sparrows over a snow-covered camellia” from a series of 25 engravings.

In August 1832, the artist walked the entire eastern coastal road - Tokaido. The result of the trip was a large series of landscape prints he published, “The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido Road,” which marked the beginning of the flowering of his work.
The next period of creativity Hiroshige differs in many ways from the previous one. He often changes his place of residence, makes repeated, rather long trips around the country, but at the same time does not create large landscape series at all. He devotes most of his time to illustrating books of satirical poetry.

In the last decade of his life, the artist did not part with his favorite themes of landscapes of Tokaido and Edo, depicting them in individual engravings, fans, and books. Hiroshige creates the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji". During these same years, the artist turned to depicting bizarre rocks, caves, waterfalls, gorges and crossings over them. Hiroshige gave his last landscape series, consisting of three triptychs, the old poetic title “Snow, Moon, Flowers.” Within three recent years Hiroshige's life, engravings of himself gradually appeared large series- “One Hundred Views of Edo.”

Landscapes Hiroshige along with works Hokusai made an engraving ukiyo-e leading art form of the first half of the 19th century.

Many works by Hiroshige and Hokusai, as well as other various authors, can be viewed on the Ukiyoe Japanese Prints website. But be careful - there are 9 galleries of paintings of 500 each. You can stay for a long time!

Introduction

Every day the world is rapidly changing, and human values are also changing... You can understand humanity as a single whole only by tracing its history - from the first states - the so-called eastern despotisms that arose thousands of years ago in the valleys of great rivers, to the first legal states of the modern type, from a society in which slavery was considered normal, before the emergence of modern civil society with its recognition by democracy of individual rights as the highest civilizational values. One of the entertaining types of depicting history can be considered artistic creativity, namely the Japanese ukiyo-e engraving, which will actually be discussed in my essay.

"...Live only the moment given to you, enjoy admiring the moon, cherry blossoms, autumn maple leaves, sing songs, drink wine and have fun, not caring at all about the poverty that defiantly stares us in the face, mindlessly surrender to the flow, like a pumpkin, dispassionately drawn by the flow of the river. This is what we call ukiyo" - this is what the townspeople of the new capital Edo (since 1714) and the old capital Kyoto said.

The art of this world - "ukiyo" and, above all, engraving - became a reflection of the entire life of the townspeople, their tastes, interests, and fashions. Unlike the aristocratic painting of the Middle Ages, wood engraving was widely circulated, affordable, and truly popular. It was based on tradition book graphics, programs of the townspeople's favorite theater - Kabuki, but only with the advent easel graphics(that is, in the Japanese understanding - engravings on separate sheets) it began to acquire everything higher value as an independent art form.

I . Origin of the term "ukiyo-e"

Ukiyo-e is one of the most popular styles of Japanese fine art from the Edo period (now Tokyo), a genre of art represented mainly by prints from wooden boards, developed in early stages Edo era (1600 - 1868). It appeared in the first half of the 17th century, in the second half of the 19th century. fell into disrepair. The 18th century is considered to be the heyday of ukiyo-e. Ukiyo-e enjoyed success throughout Japan, with its most characteristic forms becoming established in examples produced in Edo from about 1680 to the mid-1950s.

The term "ukiyo", borrowed from Buddhist philosophy, literally means “the world of sorrow” - this is the name of the world of samsara, the world of transitory illusions, where the lot of man is sorrow, suffering, illness and death. This world, from the point of view of the traditionally minded Japanese, is as illusory and transitory as a dream, and its inhabitants are no more real than creatures from the world of dreams. In the 17th century, ideas about the variability and illusory nature of this world, being somewhat rethought, gave rise to a special kind of aesthetics: the impermanence of being was perceived not only and not so much as a source of suffering, but rather as a call for the pleasures and pleasures that this impermanence bestows. The world of transitory pleasures also began to be called ukiyo, only it was written with a different hieroglyph with the same sound, literally meaning “floating”, “floating by”. Ukiyo-e means “pictures of the floating world.” There is another shade of meaning: artists who worked in the ukiyo-e style. were familiar with the principles of Western art and often used knowledge of the laws of perspective in their works, which was atypical for traditional Japanese painting yamato-e (“Japanese painting”) or kara-e (“Chinese painting”). Therefore, for Japanese viewers, accustomed to completely flat images, the world in ukiyo-e pictures was perceived as three-dimensional, “floating up” on the surface of the sheet or, conversely, “sinking” in its depths.

At the end of the seventeenth century. Ukiyo began to mean the world of earthly joys and pleasures. Ukiyo-e are pictures of the daily life of the urban class of the Edo period.

II . History of the development of ukiyo-e

2.1 Ukiyo-e as one of the results of the development of Japanese painting

All styles of Japanese painting are based on the continental direction, which came from China and Korea, and the purely Japanese. Until the 10th century, the Chinese direction dominated, after which Japanese painting appeared - Yamato-e, the main representatives of this direction were made in the form of screens and sliding screens. Then, a little later, long pictorial scrolls of emakimono appear, as well as paintings on separate sheets of approximately landscape format. By the 14th century The emakimono genre is fading away and is being replaced by ink painting in the Zen manner - sumi-e, which goes far beyond the monastic tradition and becomes an integral part of secular art. The most important schools of Japanese painting of the Edo period include the Tosa and Rimpa schools, which specialized in painting in the Yamato-e style. In the Edo era, other areas of painting also flourished: the schools of Maruyama-Shizeyo, Akita, Itoo, etc. The Namban direction was also popular - literally “southern barbarian” - as the Japanese called the Europeans. Artists who worked in this style imitated Western painting and used Western subjects and laws of perspective in their own way. From the beginning of the 18th century. The bunjing style (“enlightened painting”) came into fashion - artists who painted in this style were especially inspired by the southern Chinese painting of the Yuan Dynasty, called nanga in Japan.

Ukiyo-e is one of the most popular styles of Japanese fine art of the Edo period; it appeared in the first half of the 17th century. As a rule, ukiyo-e is understood as genre painting and with features engraving.

2.2 The world depicted on the “tree”

The technique of woodblock printing, or printing from wooden boards, appeared in Japan during the Heian period (794–1185) along with the spread of Buddhism. The wooden board printing technique was first used to make black and white prints of various Buddhist saints and to illustrate the text of sutras.

JAPANESE COLOR XYLOGRAPHY (wood engraving) is a unique phenomenon in the history of world art. The Japanese borrowed its technique from China. Already from the 13th century, small Buddhist icons and amulets were printed in Japan, but these products were of a handicraft nature.

Beginning of the 17th century characterized by the appearance of illustrated woodcut books published in mass editions. In these editions, text and illustrations were printed in black.

The first easel engravings were also black and white, then they began to be lightly tinted by hand with cinnabar (tan-e), later the engravings were tinted with dark red paint (beni-e) or shaded with thick black paint, which created the effect of being covered with black varnish (urusi-e). e). The first prints using red (benizuri-e) appeared in the mid-18th century. Gradually, the number of boards for color printing increased, and in 1765 the first multi-color engravings, called “brocade paintings” (nishiki-e), appeared.

As an independent art form, engraving is established at the last stage medieval history Japan - during the Tokugawa period (1603-1868). This time is characterized by the formation of a new urban culture, reflecting the tastes of the third and fourth estates - merchants and artisans, who played an increasingly important role in the economic and then cultural life of the country. In the art of the 17th-19th centuries it was formed a new style- ukiyo-e (literally: pictures of the floating world) - a direction of urban art of the Edo period (1613-1868), to which engraving also belongs. Its main theme was the daily life of the townspeople themselves, their everyday life and holidays.

Color woodcuts are labor-intensive and require the participation of several specialists: an artist who writes a sketch of the future engraving; a craftsman who “finishes” a sketch to such a degree of detail that it can be cut into a board for printing; a carver who transfers the image onto a rip-cut board, with a separate board cut for each color; and a printer who prints manually, without using a machine. Usually the role of the publisher was very important, who not only provided general management and ensured sales, but was often also the author of the idea for the work. There could have been another participant - a poet, who composed an accompanying poem for the engraving and in some cases acted as a calligrapher, when he wrote down his creation on a sketch in his own hand.

Originating in the 17th century. Among the growing third estate, less constrained by canons than painting, engraving was the most widespread and accessible form of art for townspeople.

Mid 1820s to early 1830s Japanese woodblock prints are cut woodcuts. Cliches for it were made from a longitudinal section of pear or cherry wood. The artist's sketch was superimposed on the board, and all lines were cut off on both sides sharp knife. At the same time, the smoothness of the pattern of wood fibers could not but affect its linear structure. Initially, the engraving was one-color, and the entire relatively small edition was tinted by hand, which gave the works a special charm of spontaneity and handicraft. The early period of development of engraving dates back to 1680-1760.

The focus of Ukiyo-e artists was on the inhabitants of this impermanent world of transitory pleasures: beautiful ladies, as a rule, - famous geishas and courtesans (bijinga genre), kabuki theater actors, perceived in that era as male “courtesans” (yakusha-e genre), erotic scenes (the so-called shunga - “spring pictures”), scenes of admiration beautiful natural phenomena, holidays and fireworks, “flowers and birds” (katega), as well as famous views of natural landscapes, thanks to their picturesque beauty, which have become places of pilgrimage. As the direction of ukiyo-e developed, the scope of the slice of life it reflected expanded all the time: many pictures of ukiyo-e appeared, illustrating famous literary works, especially Ise-monogatari and Genji-monogatari, as well as military chronicles of gunki-monogatari; after all, by the time of the genre's heyday, it had encompassed literally every aspect of daily life in all segments of Japanese society. Historical subjects also became the theme of ukiyo-e: images of famous samurai (musha-e genre), especially the era of Sengoku Ji-dai, battle scenes, scenes of bloodshed, depicted very naturalistically, fires and fire fighting, as well as the world of ghosts and demons, fantastic grotesques, etc. Beautiful parodies and imitations of the exquisite Yamato-e style became very widespread: courtesans were depicted in the robes and poses of the bodhisattva Kannon or noble ladies of the Heian era; Zen saint Daruma (Bodhidharma) - in the garb of a courtesan; Popular deities among the people - indulging in various kinds of pleasure.

Fioletova Tatyana, 10th grade student of secondary school No. 32, Rybinsk

The relevance of the research topic is related to the study of the characteristics Japanese prints. Perhaps this is one of the few works of art, having seen which in the best museums in the world, it is impossible to make a mistake about the origin of which. You can admire Japanese prints for hours, marveling at their elegance and perfection of lines, simplicity of composition and intricacy of detail.

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Municipal educational institution

average comprehensive school No. 32 named after. Academician A.A. Ukhtomsky

ABSTRACT

on the topic

“Features of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints

and its influence on European painting"

Completed

10th grade student

Violetova Tatiana

Scientific director

Shcherbak Ellina Yurievna

Rybinsk

2012

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

1. The obscure term Ukiyo-e. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

1.1. The origin story of Ukiyo-e. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

1.2. The process of creating Ukiyo-e. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2. Genres of Ukiyo-e engraving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

3. The influence of Ukiyo-e on European painting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

3.1. The influence of Ukiyo-e on the work of American artists and Western Europe. . . . . . . . . .10

3.2. The influence of Ukiyo-e on the work of Russian artists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Introduction

Relevance The research topic is related to the study of the characteristics of Japanese engravings. Perhaps this is one of the few works of art that, having seenin the best museums in the world, it is impossible to make a mistake about the origin of which. You can admire Japanese prints for hours, marveling at their elegance and perfection of lines, simplicity of composition and intricacy of detail.

The history of Japan goes back more than 8,000 years. Due to its remoteness from the rest of the world, it formed its own civilization, different from others. Traditional Japanese painting, like the entire culture of Japan, is unique.

Emerging in the 17th century among the growing third estate, less constrained by canons than painting, engraving was the most widespread and accessible form of art for city residents. The themes for Ukiyo-e prints were often plots from Ukiyo-zoshi genre stories, Kabuki theater plays, classical and modern poetry.

The engravings were created by great artists who brought this art to almost perfection. Masters such as Utagawa Toyoharu, Katsushika Hokusai and many others were able to capture the most beautiful moments of this fleeting world in their creations.

Acquaintance with Japanese art turned out to be fruitful for European and Russian artists, not only on the path to creating a new plastic language, but also served to enrich the visual experience of the masters, revealing to them the existence of a different type creative imagination, the possibility of fundamentally new points of view on the familiar and everyday.

Purpose of the study:description of the features of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints.

Research objectives:

Explore the origin of the term Ukiyo-e.
Identify the genres of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints.
Determine the influence of Ukiyo-e on European painting

Practical significance.The results of the study can be used in lessons on art and world artistic culture.

1. The obscure term Ukiyo-e

1.1. Origin of Ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e is one of the most popular styles of Japanese fine art during the Edo period. It appeared in the first half of the 17th century, in the second half of the 19th century. fell into disrepair. The heyday of Ukiyo-e is considered to be the 18th century. Ukiyo-e is usually understood as popular and widespread during the Edo period. genre works- painting and, in particular, engraving. The term Ukiyo, borrowed from Buddhist philosophy, literally means “the world of sorrow” - this is the name of the world of samsara, the world of transitory illusions, where the lot of man is sorrow, suffering, illness and death. This world, from the point of view of the traditionally minded Japanese, is as illusory and transitory as a dream, and its inhabitants are no more real than creatures from the world of dreams. In the 17th century, ideas about the variability and illusory nature of this world, being somewhat rethought, gave rise to a special kind of aesthetics: the impermanence of being was perceived not only and not so much as a source of suffering, but rather as a call for the pleasures that this impermanence bestows. The world of transitory pleasures also began to be called ukiyo, only it was written with a different hieroglyph with the same sound, literally meaning “floating”, “floating by”. Ukiyo-e means “pictures of the floating world.” There is another shade of meaning: artists who worked in the ukiyo-e style. were familiar with the principles of Western art and often used knowledge of the laws of perspective in their works, which was atypical for traditional Japanese painting yamato-e (“Japanese painting”) or kara-e (“Chinese painting”). Therefore, for Japanese viewers, accustomed to flat images, the world in Ukiyo-e’s pictures was perceived as three-dimensional, “floating up” on the surface of the sheet or, conversely, “sinking” in its depths.

The Ukiyo-e style arose in the wake of late urbanization16th century, which led to the emergence of a class of traders and small artisans who began to write stories or tales and decorate them with drawings. Such collections were called ekhon (“book of pictures”). One example of such art is the 1608 publication “Ise-monogatari"(The Tale of Ise)Honami Koetsu. Such books made extensive use of Ukiyo-e as illustrations. Later, engravings began to be printed as independent works - kakemono (a scroll with a picture or saying) and theater posterskabuki.

In the middle XVIII centurya technology was developed for producing multicolor prints, which were callednishiki-e(“brocade pictures”, also known as edo-e). AfterMeiji revolutionin 1868 and the opening of borders, the achievements of Western civilization were brought to Japan.

Ukiyo-e is gradually going out of fashion, being replacedphotography. At the same time, prints in the Ukiyo-e style became very popular in WesternEurope And America, art critics are beginning to buy them en masse. It should also be noted that in Tokugawa Japan, Ukiyo-e for a long time considered a “low” genre; therefore, a huge amount of work was lost.

1.2. The process of creating Ukiyo-e prints

The process of creating Ukiyo-e engraving involved an artist, a carver and a printer. The publisher played an important role, studying demand and determining circulation. Often it was he who set the theme of the engraving and influenced the nature of the publication.

The process of creating the engraving looked like this. The artist made a contour drawing of a prototype engraving in ink on thin, transparent paper. The carver pasted the design face down onto a board of cherry, pear, or boxwood, and cut out from it the areas on which the paper was white, thus obtaining the first printing plate, but destroying the design itself. Then several black and white prints were made, on which the artist designated the intended colors. The carver made the required number (sometimes more than thirty) of printing plates, each of which corresponded to one color or tone. The printer, having discussed the color scheme with the artist, applied paint of vegetable or mineral origin and manually printed the engraving on wet rice paper.

The collective method of work of the artist, carver and printer, the narrow specialization of the craftsmen, and the guild organization of the process determined the uniqueness of Japanese woodcuts.

2. Genres of Ukiyo-e prints

Bijin-ga – a general name for works of painting and graphics depicting female beauty in traditional artJapan, for example – in printing from wooden boards of artistic directionukiyo-e, which was a kind of predecessor of photography. The designation "bidzinga" can thus also be used for modern means art representing the classic image of beauty Japanese woman usually dressed inkimono.

Almost all ukiyo-e masters created paintings in the bijinga genre, which was one of the central themes of this movement. Japanese art. Among the artists who created bijinga, mention should be made of such masters of form and innovators in Japanese painting asHishikawa Moronobu, Kitagawa Utamaro, Suzuki Harunobu, Toyohara Chikanobu, Torii Kiyonaga , Nishikawa Sukenobu, Ito Shinsui.

Yakusya-e – (Japanese - depiction of actors), a genre of Japanese prints from the ukiyo-e direction, reflecting the life of Kabuki theater actors. Originated in con. XII century as the design of a poster, playbill, theater program. Early works yakusha-e (late 12th – mid 13th centuries), made using woodcut technique with brightly tinted prints, created heroic image actor-performer of dramatic roles. They attracted attention with the breathtaking speed of the action and the luxury of theatrical costumes (engravings by Torii Kiyonobu with the figure of an actor facing the audience, as if flying in a dance, juggling weapons). In the 2nd half of the 13th century, lyrical scenes and portraits of actors in the process of work, in the artistic dressing room, appeared in Yakusha-e engravings. The highest stage in the development of the yakusha-e genre is the work of Choshusay Syaraku (late 13th – early 19th centuries). He created a gallery of portraits in which the actor appears in the image of a suffering, hating, hungry person burned by passions. IN works of the XIX V. the craving for decorativeness increases, interest in inner world characters.

Japanese theatrical engraving, in the process of its development, became a valuable and independent art, the heyday of which occurred in the 17th – 19th centuries.

Katyo-e ( JapaneseKatyo-e, or kate-ga "paintings of flowers and birds") - a subgenre of Japanese printsUkiyo-e, originating from a traditional genre of Chinese painting dedicated to the same subject. There were masters who specialized exclusively in this genre, although major ukiyo-e masters, for example,Hiroshige, it was also sometimes used.

Ohara Koson is one of the most famous kate-e artists of the twentieth century..

Fukei-ga – landscape engraving, which became widespread in the first half of the 19th century.The flourishing of the landscape genre in Japanese classical woodcuts is associated with the names of two great artists - Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and Ando (Utagawa) Hiroshige (1797-1858).

Japan has many wonderful places and magnificent landscapes. But Mount Fuji, the symbol of the country, has gained worldwide fame Rising Sun. The Japanese admire Fuji and consider it a national shrine.

Fuji is magnificent at all times of the year; it changes its colors depending on the weather. Whenever you see this active volcano, it will evoke special feelings in you, not only with its beauty, but also with its grandeur.

Japanese legend says that the gods created “Mount Fuji” in one night. The land was taken near Kyoto, on the site where Japan's largest natural lake, Biwa, later arose. These events took place in 286 BC.

The Japanese see unique beauty in everything. Mount Fuji, covered with snow, evokes sacred awe and admiration among the residents of Japan. The volcano has a classic conical shape and amazes with its perfection. The slightly truncated and symmetrical slopes of Fuji stand out against the blue sky. All this brings peace to the soul, speaks of the orderliness of the universe and harmony in nature.

The height of Fuji is 3776 meters. The mountain rises above the surrounding area and attracts the attention of all of Japan. Is Fuji and one of the shrines ancient religion Japan - Shintoism. The Japanese traditionally adhere to the faith of their ancestors and therefore pilgrimages to the mountain are very popular among them. The Japanese believe that everyone should climb a mountain at least once in their life.

Musya-e - historical-heroic genre; depiction of samurai, famous in the history of Japan, battle scenes. Traditional ukiyo-e genre.

3. The influence of Ukiyo-e on European painting

It is noteworthy that foreigners helped the Japanese themselves to look at Ukiyo-e as full-fledged works of art.After the opening of Japan in 1855 to the outside world, Japanese goods and works of art were imported into Europe in large quantities and quickly found connoisseurs there. During the World's Fair in London and the World's Fair in Paris, Japanese color prints and various handicrafts were demonstrated: porcelain, kimonos, screens, lacquerware.

At the end of the 19th century. Many Art Nouveau designers looked to the East, especially Japan, for inspiration. After 200 years of isolation, Japan opened its doors to the West, and Japanese crafts - from ceramics and metalwork to architecture, painting and drawing - had a huge influence on Western collectors. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1867, Japanese art and culture were presented to Western audiences in all their diversity. The French critic Philippe Burty described a new style that arose under the influence of Japanese art, which he called Japonism.

Japonism (from the French Japonisme) is a direction in European art of the 19th century century, formed under the influence of Japanese color woodcuts Ukiyo-e and artistic crafts. The motifs, techniques and presentation of color in Japanese art were reflected in the work of impressionist artists. Japonism also had a significant influence on Art Nouveau and Cubism.

The main features of Japaneseism are natural themes (animals, insects, plants), two-dimensional complex patterns on surfaces, simple color scheme.

Western public interest in Japanese decorative and applied arts, especially Japanese prints, were fueled by art shops, museum exhibitions, international fairs and, of course, numerous discussions in the press. With a growing emphasis on woodblock prints, porcelain, and other art from Japan, European craftsmen's wares began to feature an increasing number of natural motifs, including animals, insects, and plants. The two-dimensional, complex patterns found in woodblock prints by Japanese artists such as Hiroshige impressed many Western designers of the time. Their influence can also be seen in the sinuous lines and natural motifs of Art Nouveau.

3.1. The influence of Ukiyo-e on the work of American artists and

Western Europe

Americans James Whistler and Mary Cassatt were attracted by the restraint of line and bright color spots of Ukiyo-e prints and paintings.

J. Whistler was the first among European artists to experience a passion for the art of Japan. In color Japanese woodblock prints he was attracted by the unexpectedness and sharpness of the compositional solution, the expressiveness of the angles, and the joyful colors. He strives to convey his passion for the exotic East in his works “Princess of the Land of Porcelain”, “Caprice in Purple and Gold. Golden Screen", "Village".

Mary Cassatt's experimentation with a variety of methods often led to unexpected results. For example, taking inspiration from the Japanese master printmaker, in 1891 Mary Cassatt produced a series of ten Japanese-style color etchings that were exhibited at the Durand-Ruel Gallery, including Woman Washing and The Visit.

The graphic style of children's book illustrator Walter Crane was a reflection of his interest in the art of Japanese prints with its linearity and local color scheme. The grace of clear black contours and delicate color combinations, according to the artist, was absolutely consistent with the characteristics of children's perception. W. Crane tried to understand what exactly attracts children in illustrations and in art in general. He believed that children preferred to see precise lines, clearly defined shapes and figures, and bright, saturated colors. The artist was of the opinion that children do not pay much attention to chiaroscuro and three-dimensional display of objects. With his illustrations, he sought to amaze and encourage children's imagination in every possible way, using bright colors and clear designs.

It is known that many Post-Impressionists drew inspiration from Japanese prints. Starting from copying to early period creativity, ending with constant echoes and reminiscences in the most famous works. An example of this is the painting “Portrait of Father Tanguy” by Van Gogh and the engravings of Hiroshige.

Ando Hiroshige is an outstanding Japanese graphic artist, the largest representative of the Ukiyo-e movement, a master of color woodcuts, who developed a new type of chamber landscape for Japanese art, imbued with a subtle lyrical feeling of landscape. Many of his techniques were later adopted European impressionists and post-impressionists, and also anticipated avant-garde photography of the 20th century. To convey space, Hiroshige often depicted a sharply protruding detail in the foreground, while softly interpreting distant plans; I also used linear perspective. Hiroshige's landscapes, marked by an exquisite lyricism of imagery, usually include images of people immersed in their daily activities.

The compositional and coloristic techniques used by Hiroshige in this series had a huge influence on such artists as E. Degas, Van Gogh, James Tissot.

In the work of Vincent van Gogh, the influence of Japanese graphics is enormous. In their three paintings Van Gogh copies Japanese color engravings or reproduces them in oil painting. These works demonstrate the artist's desire to penetrate the secrets of Japanese art. Based on Japanese pen engravings, Van Gogh, having studied the 15-volume manga (collection of sketches) by Hokusai, developed his rhythmic “dot-dash” painting structure, which he then transferred to oil painting.

However, even before Van Gogh, the impressionists were looking for the necessary means of representation in Japanese color engraving. They took over various shapes composition, for example, a free-standing image, as if “cropped” by the frame of a picture of an object; a figure standing in the foreground of the canvas; asymmetrical construction of the picture; extremely deep diagonals into the distance; “barring” the picture with the help of trees. Hokusai's series of color graphics were the model for the serial works of Paul Cézanne and Claude Monet.

The most characteristic technique, adopted from Japanese prints and directly from Hiroshige’s “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” series, consists of unexpected cuts of objects and figures in the foreground. This gives fragmentation to the whole picture. It was used by French artists of all movements. It is known that Vincent Van Gogh copied the engravings "Plum Garden at Kameido" and "Rain at the Ohashi Bridge" from the series "One Hundred Views of Edo" while studying compositional techniques and the structure of Japanese prints. Emphasizing the origins of the borrowing, Van Gogh frames his compositions with Japanese hieroglyphs, which he copied from sheets of other Hiroshige series. He creates works in which he uses techniques characteristic of Japanese prints: a high point of view, a clear division into two planes, apparent randomness compositional construction, fragmentation. In the use by European artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries of motifs of irises, plum blossoms, chrysanthemums, waterfalls, in linearity, as well as in a number of other depiction techniques, one can find direct analogies with Japanese engravings and the works of Hiroshige. Hiroshige's graphic language is unique - it is dynamic and lyrical at the same time. The composition, line, color, rhythm of the engravings are in harmony. Knowledge and mastery various techniques presupposed the need for the same mastery and skill on the part of the printer and carver. In this regard, it should be noted that Japanese color engraving was created using a special method, which was fundamentally different from European technology.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec brilliantly rethought the style of woodcut and created own style, free from Western notions of perspective and composition.

Graphic artists, including Toulouse-Lautrec, were particularly fond of Ukiyo-e, and Christopher Dresser studied it during his trip to Japan, where he went to purchase goods for the London Liberty store. This store opened in 1875, selling fabrics, jewelry and art imported from the East, particularly Japan. The store also commissioned Japanese-style homewares from Western designers. Since the 1860s Dresser had a deep interest in Japanese art and made considerable efforts to popularize it, both in Great Britain and the United States. The West's fascination with Japanese art and design resulted in the development of Japanese style, which became an important movement in Western art. It, in turn, also influenced Japanese artists and viewers.

3.2. The influence of Japanese prints on the work of Russian artists

Japanese influence cultural tradition on the culture of Russia at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. – shining example dialogue of cultures, when a “different” culture is creatively processed, refracted through the prism of its own cultural tradition and leads to the enrichment of the latter, giving impetus to its further fruitful development.

“Japanisms” in Russian art of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. can be represented in the works of Y. Dobuzhinsky by engravings “Bypass Canal in St. Petersburg”, I. Bilibin, V. Borisov-Musatov and P. Kuznetsov. Signs of “Japaneseism” in the European version can also be found in the works of K. Somov, E. Lanceray, L. Bakst, M. Vrubel. The passion for Japanese painting served as an impetus for the study of the Japanese theatrical tradition for the innovator of the Russian theater V.E. Meyerhold. To capture the attention of the audience and to express the grotesque, he used the principles of Japanese Noh theater.

The nature of Japanese influence in this area can be represented in the form of stylization, when artists turned to creative techniques Japanese in depicting reality. In this case, borrowings come down to techniques for depicting the sky, waves, coloring of the contours of the picture, and the decorative qualities of Japanese engravings. Among the motifs of Japanese origin, the theme of water played a more significant role than all others. The image of water and waves was associated with the idea of growth, development, transition from one state to another, that is, with the idea of continuity. Numerous wave variations in the prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige captivated the imagination of artists. The wave not only appeared in a “natural” form in I. Bilibin, but also became the most important part of ornamental constructions, which was expressed in the rhythmic organization of space of the Ryabushinsky mansion in Moscow, architect Shekhtel.

The influence of Japanese prints on Russian graphics of this period is especially strong. This can be seen in the illustrations of the artist Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin.

AND I. Bilibin developed a system graphic techniques, which made it possible to combine illustrations and design in one style, subordinating them to the plane of the book page. Characteristic features of the Bilibin style: the beauty of patterned designs, exquisite decorative color combinations, subtle visual embodiment of the world. The artist strove for an ensemble solution. He emphasized the flatness of the book page with a contour line, lack of lighting, coloristic unity, conventional division of space into plans and the combination of different points of view in the composition.

One of I. Bilibin’s significant works was illustrations for “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” by A. S. Pushkin. Various sources of stylization are noticeable between the sheets of the series. The illustration depicting Saltan looking into the little room is reminiscent of the winter landscapes of I.Ya. Bilibin from life. Scenes of receiving guests and feasts are rich in motifs of Russian ornament. A leaf with a barrel floating on the sea is reminiscent of Hokusai's famous "Wave".

In illustrations, the composition, as a rule, unfolds parallel to the plane of the sheet. Large figures appear in majestic, frozen poses. The conditional division of space into plans and the combination of different points of view in one composition make it possible to maintain flatness. Lighting completely disappears, color becomes more conventional, the unpainted surface of the paper plays an important role, the way of marking a contour line becomes more complicated, and a strict system of strokes and dots is formed.

The process of making a graphic drawing by an artist was reminiscent of the work of an engraver. Having sketched a sketch on paper, he clarified the composition in all details on tracing paper, and then translated it onto whatman paper. After this, using a kolinsky brush with a cut end, likening it to a chisel, I drew a clear wire outline with ink along the pencil drawing. In his mature period of creativity, I. Bilibin abandoned the use of the pen, which he sometimes resorted to in his early illustrations. For his impeccable firmness of line, his comrades jokingly nicknamed him “Ivan the Steady Hand.”

The work of Viktor Borisov-Musatov was a successful experience of independent and fruitful interpretation of new pictorial quests of European and Russian art. The artist is comparable to the Japanese masters in the organic correspondence of all the elements of the composition of his paintings to each other, the figures and the natural background, the outfits of the heroines. The silent, immersed in dreams, and almost motionless figures of women in the painting “Emerald Necklace” are reminiscent of impressionists and at the same time images Japanese artist Utamaro. The faces of V. Musatov’s women in “The Emerald Necklace” are similar to each other, as are the faces of the beauties of Utamaro. The content of his works is determined not by the depth of individual human images, but by their relationships in the figurative system of the picture.

The picturesque discoveries of V. Borisov-Musatov acquired particular significance for Pavel Kuznetsov. The work of Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov “Still Life with Japanese Engraving” is a discovery of Japanese art. In his still life, Kuznetsov reveals the essence of not only his personal experience of perceiving Japanese art, but also the history of its discovery by a whole generation of Russian artists. For Kuznetsov, “Still Life” and Utamaro’s engraving are both the subject of the image and the subject of pictorial interpretation. Kuznetsov made no attempts to reproduce the techniques and methods of work in “Still Life with Japanese Engraving” Japanese masters, which many of his contemporaries resorted to. Without copying Utamaro's engravings, but trying to penetrate his art from the inside, Kuznetsov gives a pictorial interpretation to the graphic work. We can say that the work of two Russian artists V.E. Borisov-Musatov and P. Kuznetsov, was also devoted to the search for new ways of expressing the means of art. The work of Japanese masters influenced the artistic methods and techniques of these artists, in depicting man in inextricable connection with nature.

A striking example of the peculiar “Japanism” of Georgy Bogdanovich Yakulov - general design and a poster for the Pittoresk cafe (1917). The main hall of the cafe, both in its general composition and design details, resembles an old Japanese theater. This can be easily seen by looking at a Japanese engraving from the late 15th century that depicts the interior of the theater.

The poster shows a full-length female figure of a European appearance and in European clothes, surrounded on the right and left by an inscription with the name, address and opening date of the cafe. Let's compare the poster with an engraving by a Japanese artist of the 15th century. Suzuki Harunobu "Geisha". It is difficult to say whether he knew about the existence of this engraving, which his poster is so reminiscent of - both in the setting of the figure and in the inscriptions, as if hanging in the air. But this does not indicate copying or stylization. It's about about the similarity of artistic thinking. Yakulov himself said that the Eastern - symbolic system is closer to him than the European - realistic one.Russian artists were faced with the task of preserving all the wealth of Russian culture acquired over the centuries, and at the same time regaining the spontaneity of perception and, on this basis, achieving new aesthetic perfection.

Conclusion

Based on the research materials, we can note:

The term Ukiyo, borrowed from Buddhist philosophy, literally means "world of sorrow." The world of transitory pleasures also came to be called ukiyo, literally meaning “floating”, “floating by”. Ukiyo-e means “pictures of the floating world.”
A special feature of the engraving is the difference in genres: the image of female beauty, a reflection of the life of Kabuki theater actors, paintings about flowers and birds,landscapes, historical and heroic events. Another feature aretwo-dimensional complex patterns on surfaces, a simple color scheme, the idea of harmony between heaven, earth and man, in understanding the worldview and the sad charm of a passing life.
The nature of Japanese influence can be represented in the form of two main techniques for using the Japanese artistic tradition:

1) the technique of stylization, when artists turned to the creative techniques of the Japanese in depicting reality. In these cases, borrowings come down to techniques for depicting the sky, waves, coloring of the contours of the picture, and the decorative qualities of Japanese engravings. The technique of stylization was clearly manifested in the works of Russian artists I. Bilibin, A. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, M. Kassatt, Y. Dobuzhinsky, W. Crane.

2) the use of Japanese motifs within the framework of his own creativity, when the artist transforms Japanese culture in relation to his tasks, interpret the language of Japanese art, weaving it into the fabric of his own artistic method in the work of V. Borisov-Musatov, P. Kuznetsov, V. Van Gogh.

Absorbing the Western stylization of the East, artists based on it sought and created their own image of the East - an image based on a person’s ability to see the world directly. Acquaintance with Japanese art turned out to be fruitful for European and Russian artists, not only on the path to creating a new plastic language, but also served to enrich the visual experience of the masters, revealing to them the existence of a different type of creative imagination, the possibility of fundamentally new points of view on the familiar and everyday.

A comparison of Western and Russian masters with Japanese graphics gives us every reason to talk about a free dialogue between different cultures, about contact with the spiritual culture of Japan in the 20th century, which significantly enriched the cultural fund, which influenced the range of its interests.

Literature

Ukiyoe-Gallery [Electronic resource] // Fine Japanese Woodblock Prints. -http://www.ukiyoe-gallery.com/index.htm

Again, not about everything at once, but specifically about engravings ukiyo-e. A beautiful word, but what does it mean? We read special sites. For example, Encyclopedia of Japan from A to Z
- and we find out that:

The first prints using red (benizuri-e) appeared in the mid-18th century. Gradually, the number of boards for color printing increased, and in 1765 the first multi-color engravings, called “brocade paintings” (nishiki-e), appeared.

Originating in the 17th century. Among the growing third estate, less constrained by canons than painting, engraving was the most widespread and accessible form of art for townspeople. Themes for ukiyo-e prints were often plots from ukiyo-zoshi genre stories, Kabuki theater plays, classical and modern poetry.
The process of creating ukiyo-e prints involved an artist, a carver, and a printer. The publisher played an important role, studying demand and determining circulation. Often it was he who set the theme of the engraving and influenced the nature of the publication.

The process of creating the engraving looked like this. Artist I made an outline drawing in ink on thin, transparent paper. Engraver, having pasted the drawing face down onto a board of cherry, pear or boxwood, I cut out the first printed form. Then several black and white prints were made, on which the artist designated the intended colors. Cutter produced the required number (sometimes more than thirty) of printing forms, each of which corresponded to one color or tone. Printer, having discussed with artist color scheme, applied paint of vegetable or mineral origin and manually printed the engraving on wet rice paper.

The collective method of work of the artist, carver and printer, the narrow specialization of the craftsmen, and the guild organization of the process determined the uniqueness of Japanese woodcuts.

The founder of the direction is considered Moronobu Hishikawa, Kichibe (about 1618 - about 1694; according to other sources 1625 - about 1694, 1638−1714), Japanese painter and graphic artist. Lived in Edo. Even the largest representatives of ukiyo-e were Katsushika Hokusai, who is also known as the founder of the landscape genre in Japanese prints, Ando Hiroshige(1797−1858) - one of the largest Japanese graphic artists.
Hiroshige Born in Edo into the family of a petty samurai, Ando Genemon. Thanks to his early training in hieroglyphic writing, Tokutaro (the artist's first childhood name) also had a good understanding of the properties of paper, brush and ink - the main materials of oriental painting.

The first painting, “Mount Fuji in the Snow,” which has survived to this day (Suntory Museum, Tokyo), was painted by the artist at the age of ten. He was fourteen years old when he became an apprentice Toyohiro, founder of the school Utagawa. Hiroshige's early works are based on real events, scenes seen on the streets.

The second stage of creativity was marked by the appearance of landscape engravings. The first series, “Eight Views of Omi,” published in 1825, dedicated to the beauty of Lake Biwa, located in the province of Omi, was depicted by Hiroshige without leaving Edo. The next series, “Ten Views of the Eastern Capital,” released two years later, is dedicated to the artist’s hometown, Edo.

In the last decade of his life, the artist did not part with his favorite themes of landscapes of Tokaido and Edo, depicting them in individual engravings, fans, and books. Hiroshige creates the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji". During these same years, the artist turned to depicting bizarre rocks, caves, waterfalls, gorges and crossings over them. Hiroshige gave his last landscape series, consisting of three triptychs, the old poetic title “Snow, Moon, Flowers.” During the last three years of Hiroshige's life, prints of his largest series, One Hundred Views of Edo, were gradually published.

Landscapes Hiroshige along with works Hokusai made an engraving ukiyo-e leading art form of the first half of the 19th century.

The emergence and development of ukiyo-e

One of the most famous types of Japanese art is printmaking, called ukiyo-e (浮世絵). Literally, “ukiyo-e” is translated as “floating world,” which refers us to Buddhist philosophy, in which the word “ukiyo” meant “fleeting world.” But with the advent of “gay quarters” (brothels) in the Edo era, the concept was rethought and began to mean “the world of fleeting phenomena.” The word "ukiyo-e" was first mentioned by the writer Asai Ryoi in 1661.

The ukiyo-e style refers to woodcuts, woodblock prints, or paper prints. The creator of ukiyo-e is considered to be the painter and graphic artist Hishikawa Moronobu (菱川師宣).

The predecessors of ukiyo-e were ekhon (絵本) - collections of stories with accompanying pictures. Then the prints gained independence and were used as posters for kabuki theater productions or scrolls with sayings of kakemono (掛け物), placed in niches of tokonoma (床の間), a kind of home shrines.

Ukiyo-e paintings originally emerged in the late 17th century. The first engravings were black and white, as ink was used to create them, and from the 18th century, pictures became color, as craftsmen began to paint them with cinnabar by hand using a brush. Then the polychrome printing technique appeared, called nishiki-e (錦絵) - “brocade pictures”.

Engravings were very cheap, since the technique was quite simple and made it possible to produce large “circulations”, and were intended for a wide audience, mainly the urban population. And only when the Europeans began to buy paintings en masse, the Japanese realized the full value of these works, and they had to buy paintings produced in their own country from foreigners. Due to the fact that hundreds of identical paintings could be created with a print, you can see the same work in several places around the globe, and all of them will be authentic.

Since the main consumers of the paintings were city dwellers, the subjects reflected typical image life of a Japanese city: beautiful ladies, everyday situations, sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors, stories from legends. Later, landscapes and military themes began to be depicted. Accordingly, ukiyo-e paintings are not only works of art, but also important historical sources, from which we can learn a lot about life in the Edo period.

The prints were intended to be admired horizontally, so they were not hung on the wall except as kakemono. Because of this, some works have their own “secret”. For example, the hero's kimono could have a pattern that could only be seen when the picture lay horizontally or when looking at it from below if it was hanging on the wall.

Execution technique

To create a Japanese print, three people were required: an artist, a carver and a printer. The quality and beauty of the work depended on everyone three masters. The first one inked the prototype of the painting onto transparent paper, the carver glued it to a wooden board of cherry, pear or boxwood and cut out the areas that remained white. This was the first printing form, and the drawing was actually destroyed. Then several prints were made with different colors (each color or tone has its own form), and the printer, having discussed the color scheme with the artist in advance, applied paint to the set of forms and printed the engraving on rice paper.

Main genres

Bijin-ga(美人が) - image of beauties. As the name implies, the main subject of the image This genre included beautiful women. Most often in the engravings one could see the inhabitants of the cheerful quarter of Yoshiwara: geishas, courtesans and simply famous beautiful women. The typical beauty of those times had an oval face shape, a curved neck and a small mouth. The scenes in which the beauties featured were everyday: a tea ceremony, a toilet, walks, games. This genre gave rise to the style of okubi-e (お首絵) - “big heads”, which depicted a girl’s head in close-up.

Masters: Suzuki Harunobu, Torii Kiyonaga, Kitagawa Utamaro.

Yakusya-e(役者絵) - portraits of popular theater actors. The artist had to adhere to certain strict rules in the image: for example, slanting eyes, collected in a bunch, denoted anger; if the hero bit his handkerchief, it showed unbridled passion, and hairiness referred to savagery and animal uncontrollability. Yakusha-e engravings have interesting feature: You can see a purple spot on the heroes' heads. In fact, this spot denoted a cap, symbolizing a high shaved forehead, like all Edo men, which was worn on the head by actors portraying women (and as you know, in kabuki all roles, including female ones, were portrayed by men).

Masters: Torii Kiyonobu, Katsukawa Shunsho, Toshusai Sharaku, Utagawa Toyokuni.

Shunga(春画 “spring pictures”) - erotic prints.

When a Japanese hears the word “ukiyo-e,” first of all, the image of a painting in the shunga genre pops into his head, and then all the others. Shunga is a genre that depicted very explicit intimate scenes with exaggerated anatomical details, shocking Europeans raised in strict Christian customs. But the shock gave way to popularity - such images could never have existed in the West, and foreigners bought them very actively.