Kitagawa Utamaro

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The three beauties of the day

Kitagawa Utamaro ( Japanese 喜 多 川 歌 麿 ; * 1753 ; † 1806 ) was a Japanese artist who became famous primarily for his color woodcuts .

Live and act

Utamaro's place of birth is not known, and the year of birth is also not certain. In his youth he studied under an artist from the Kanō School named Toriyama Sekien and called himself Toyofusa, later Toyoaki. During this period his style was influenced by older ukiyoe artists such as Katsukawa Shuncho , Torii Kiyonaga and Kitao Shigemasa . But in the Tenmei period (1781–89) he broke up and developed his own style with elegant lines. That was also the time from which he started calling himself Utamaro. Examples from this period are the albums with brilliant woodblock prints Ehon mushi erami, Shiohi no tsuto, Momo chidori. These books were brought out by the well-known publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō .

With the beginning of the Kansei period (1789–1819) he created a number of portraits of women who became known as bijin ōkubi-e, i.e. pictures in which the heads of those portrayed occupy the sheet. A number of these color prints were printed on a mica base. The women are depicted with a wealth of details, they embrace different temperaments, social classes, and also show the inner states of the portrayed - far different from the idealized, expressionless beauties that have flooded the genre.

Utamaro has created various series with the beauties of Yoshiwara (here Seirō - the "Green Houses" or Hokkoku - "Nordland" (Yoshiwara was in northern Edo)). The prints of the "Three Beautiful", Naniwaya Okita, Toyoshima Ohisa and Tomimoto Toyohina, who were particularly famous at the time, are well known. - Utamaro parodied the eight views of Lake Biwa (Ōmi hakkei) or their variants several times, sometimes replacing Ōmi (province) with ōmi (lovers) and hakkei = eight views with the identical hakkei = eight vows.

When his publisher Tsutaya died in 1797, other publishers fought for Utamaro. He tried to meet the great demand, but his pictures lost quality in the process. In 1804 he produced some prints based on the historical Taitōki work, a work that was banned by the government. He was then jailed for three days and had to wear chains on his hands for 50 days. He died two years later.

His students Utamaro II (? –1831?), Tsukimaro (? –1830?), Hidemaru (early 19th century) and Bokusen (1736–1824) could not build on his success.

Utamaro is one of the artists who made a particularly lasting impression on the French Impressionists .

plant

Landscape with Mount Fuji
Look at cherry blossoms
  • painting
  • Illustrated books (examples)
    • Ehon mushi erami ( 絵 本 虫 選 ) (1787)
    • Shiohi no tsuto ( 潮 干 の つ と )
    • Momo chidori ( 百千 鳥 )
  • Prints as series (examples)
    • Fujin sōgaku juttai ( 婦人 相 学 拾 躰 ), 1792–93
    • Fujo ninsō juppin ( 婦女 人 相 十 品 ), 1792–93
    • Uki-e Ōmi hakkei ( 浮 絵 近 江 八景 ), 1792–95
    • Mu-tamagawa ( 六 玉川 ), 1793
    • Tōji san bijin ( 当時 三 美人 ), 1793
    • Kasen koi no bu ( 歌 撰 恋 之 部 ), 1793–94
    • Tōji zensei bijin-zoroe ( 当時 全盛 美人 揃 ),
    • Seirō jūni toki tsuzuki ( 青楼 十二 時 ), 1794
    • Musume hi-dokei ( 娘 日 時 計 ), 1795–95
    • Seirō nana Komachi ( 青楼 七 小 町 ), 1794–95
    • Hokkoku goshiki-zumi ( 北国 五色 墨 ), 1794–95
    • Kōmei bijin mitate chūshingura ( 高名 美人 見 た て 忠臣 蔵 ), 1794–95
    • Meisho koshikake hakkei ( 名 所 腰 掛 八景 ), 1995–96
    • ōmi hakkei ( 逢 身 八 契 ), 1798–99
    • Yamauba to Kintarō ( 山 姥 と 金太郎 ), 1801
    • Kyōkun oya no megane ( 教訓 親 の 日 監 ), 1802
  • Numerous prints as single sheets

photos

  • Woman with a Tortoiseshell Comb, ca.1785

  • From the series "Kyōkun oya nikkan": The devoured

  • Yamauba and Kintaro

  • Scene in the tea house

  • Flowers of Edo

  • mother with child

  • From the series "ōmi Hakkei"

reception

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of its existence, the leadership of the GDR commissioned Werner Klemke to print the pillow book (Japanese Shunga ) Utamaros in seven colors , which was to be distributed to international guests at the anniversary celebrations. The images show explicit representations of sexual associations. The print was no longer delivered on time.

The performance artist Dietmute Zlomke , who had already committed herself in 1990 to the rescue of dumped paper and print products from the sinking state, discovered the entire edition of the reproduction of the pillow book Utamaros in a Berlin antiquarian bookshop, of which she was able to purchase a few copies. The pillow book and its history became the starting point for Zlomke's installation / performance “Pillow Book of Reunification”, which was performed from 2009 to 2014.

The Tübingen painter Mark Krause was inspired by the depictions in Utamaro's pillow book for the series of pictures of the same name.

Remarks

  1. ↑ “Ōmi Hakkei” meaning “eight vows of love” is an allusion to the identical “Ōmi Hakkei” with the usual meaning “eight views of Lake Biwa”, which are actually shown in the picture above.

Exhibitions

expenditure

  • Kitagawa Utamaro: Shunga. The pillow book . Edited by Brigitte Sellin and Werner Klemke . Berliner Verlag, Berlin 1989.

literature

  • Shūgō Asano and Timothy Clark (Eds.): The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro . Asahi Shimbun, 1995 (catalog)
    • Volume 1: Text
    • Volume 2: panels
  • Inagaki Shinichi: Ukiyoe Nyumon . Kawade shobo shinsha, 1990. ISBN 4-309-72476-0 . P. 58 ff
  • Yutaka Tazawa: Biographical Dictionara of Japanese Art . Kodansha International, 1981. ISBN 0-87011-488-3
  • Laurence P. Roberts: A Dictionary of Japanese Artists . Weatherhill, 1976. ISBN 0-8348-0113-2

Web links

Commons : Kitagawa Utamaro  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ The reading erabi is also correct.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Ertle: Cures with Luise and Utamaro - Zlomke's Chambers of Wonder of forgotten applications for body, mind and soul. In: Schwäbisches Tagblatt dated February 8, 2012
  2. ^ Marie-Luise Abele: The pillow book. In: Reutlinger Nachrichten of April 16, 2011 ( Memento of November 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Museum page on the exhibition , accessed on April 27, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Kitagawa, Utamaro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 喜 多 川 歌 麿 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1753
DATE OF DEATH 1806