Books and Ukiyo-e
July 1st 2008 06:46
Books and Ukiyo-e
Most people see the word Ukiyo-e and think prints, woodblock prints. A few also think and paintings also and know those prints varied in sizes or that Edo now Tokyo was NOT the only centre of print production in Japan. Print publishers also existed in Osaka Kyoto Nagoya and I think Nagasaki too?
Students and scholars of Ukiyo-e style though are aware that a lot of Ukiyo-e style art and images were originally book illustrations. There were bound albums of series of print s of actors and city beauties and famous landscapes. There were "fine art" editions of poetry anthologies produced for private clubs. Novels were illustrated andvolumes of history and the classics.
Ever heard of the surfeit? Printing color form plates without line borders?
The Japanese invented this to copy watercolors back in the 18th century!
They developed four colored printing on wodd blocks without metal lithographic plates or silk screens!
Next time you think about Ukiyo-e dont just think prints think books!
When you're looking at art books reprodicing ukiyo-e read the descriptions more carefully?
You'll be surprised how many famous images are part of a sequence that appeared in a book!
Haranobu and Hokusai along with many others designed images for books not jsut prints.
For them prints were the media and method!
Ukiyo-e and painting is a whole other topic.
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