T is difficult rightly to determine the distinguishing characteristics of the noted artists of Ukiyo-ye: but the connoisseurs speak of the extreme grace of pictorial line in Moronobu: the sweeping areas of pattern in the garments of Kiyonobu and his followers, and their forceful ways of outlining the folds of drapery, all full of meaning.
Grace and delicacy mark the idyllic compositions of Harunobu and his successor Koriusai (the face of the Japanese woman is the face of Harunobu, Koriusai, Shunsho and his school). M. de Goncourt says: “The Japanese woman is lithe, little, and rounded. Out of this woman Utamaro created the slender, svelte woman of his prints,—a woman who has the delicate outlines of an early Watteau sketch. Before Utamaro, Kiyonaga had drawn women, larger than nature, but fleshy and thick. The face of the ordinary Japanese woman is short and squat, and except for the inexpressible vivacity and sweetness of the black eyes it is the face which Harunobu, Koriusai and Shunsho represented. Out of this face Utamaro created a long oval. He slid into the traditional treatment of the features a mutinous grace, a naïve astonishment, a spiritual comprehension; and he was the first artist who attempted, while preserving the consecrated traditional lines, to blend with them a human expression, so that his best prints become real portraits. Studying them, we no longer see only the universal, but the individual face, and, unlike the other Japanese artists, he idealizes his countrywoman through the mimicry of her gracious humanity.”
The women of Kiyonaga have a more than human dignity and grace, the classic folds of his drapery recalling figures of the Renaissance. The Japanese artist always has an underlying motive in the disposition of his drapery. The most recognizable perhaps are those called “Guantai,” signifying rude, with angular outlines, and “Rintai,” delicate, supple and wavy, like the undulations of a river.
In the “Guantai” motive we see the angles of the rocks, even in the most delicate folds of drapery. In “Rintai” no angle is visible. Here wavelike ripples descend, flowing around the feet of the wearer. In these swirls of drapery are realized the Buddhist conceptions of Life in everything,—the lines are moving, sentient, and all but the leading folds that determine the lines of the figure are suppressed. The Japanese painter knows that the true master selects, does not draw all he sees, but concentrates his efforts towards reproducing the lines of movement, and in figures, the lines of the limbs and flowing drapery. In their designs for dresses the artists of Ukiyo-ye emphasized the theorem that art is the love of certain balanced relations and proportions, for they planned dresses in which every separate part is welded into one harmonious whole. They solved theories in colour, and delighted in selecting as trials for their skill the most unmanageable patterns, such as plaids and checks. They extolled “Notan” or the decorative use of values.
In the best prints the decoration of the dress fits in with the scheme of the picture. M. de Goncourt says: “If the figures are represented out of doors, flowers seem to be shed upon the dresses, as if the wearer passed beneath blossoming trees. If the artist paints butterflies on a costume, they harmonize with the background. If peonies are used he alternates their whiteness with a purple tint. And how admirable is their use of relief! Upon a blue or mauve gown, how charming is the white relief of an embossed cherry petal, and so marvellously executed is this goffering, that many of the oldest impressions retain the impression as perfectly as if only printed yesterday.” Utamaro at first equalled Kiyonaga in the majesty of his figures, later he lost beauty and strength in exaggeration. Yeishi shows a striking resemblance to Utamaro, and he, too, followed after Kiyonaga: his studies of women are noted for their refined elegance. Yeisen compares with Utamaro in the grace with which he portrays women, and Yeizan’s lines are stronger, but show a marked similarity. Hartmann says: “The linear beauties of the representations of Yeizan, Yeishi, Yeisen, impress one like a Nautch, like some languid oriental dance in which the bodies undulate with an almost imperceptible vibration. The Japanese see in a woman, a glorification of all beautiful things—they even study the natural grace of the willow, plum and cherry trees, to find the correct expression of her movements.”
Toyokuni was the master of mimetic art. In his actor faces he runs the gamut of emotion,—jealousy, passion, fiendish fury and concentrated cunning, rush at us from his prints. Toyokuni, the Marionette maker, forced life into the forms of his puppets, and later the same power is shown in his designs for the block. Like many of the Ukiyo-ye artists, he employs caricature, but his figures are living, sentient.
M. de Goncourt says: “In comparing two books by Utamaro, and Toyokuni, illustrating the occupations of the women of the Yoshiwara Toyokuni, often the equal of Utamaro in his triptychs is beaten by his rival. His women have not the elegance, the willowy grace, the figures of Utamaro possess, nor their resplendent personality. His pictures lack the spirit, the life, the ‘trick’ of voluptuousness of the women of the ‘Flower Quarter.’ Then the comic note which Toyokuni sought for in representing these scenes, adds triviality to his work. In short, to judge between the rival painters, one has only to place side by side a woman painted by Utamaro and one by Toyokuni. The first is a little marvel, the second only a commonplace print.” Kunisada followed in the footsteps of his master Toyokuni, adding charming backgrounds, which he borrowed from Hiroshige; in fact, the Hiroshige are said to have supplied many backgrounds to the prints of Kunisada and Kuniyoshi.
Hokusai used all methods, acknowledged no school. His lines flowing out of the prescribed limits hint at vast stretches of country. Swirls of waves foam up in the impressions, supplying an alphabet of motion. In Mang-wa is blent sweetness and power, structure and the fundamental vital motive, underlying all art. When working for the engraver he was concise, rapid and impulsive, but when contemplating nature he sketched in freedom,—his execution became fairylike.
The landscape of Hiroshige, though confined to the narrow range of the wood-cut, have all the qualities of Impressionism, the details are subordinated, only the salient points of the scene being represented, but the atmosphere supplies what is lacking, and this incommunicable, subtle gift, the birthright of the artists, enabled them to conjure living pictures from the hard medium of the wooden block.
The following suggestive comparisons between the masters of Ukiyo-ye, kindly volunteered by Mr. Morgan Shepard, are full of value to the student, as the individual opinion of a refined amateur and art critic.
Of Harunobu he says: “Though from the point of proportion his figures seem to lack technic, the naïve artlessness of his lines perfectly satisfies us. In this purpose of simplicity they almost suggest the qualities of the fresco work by the early Tuscan masters, when the spirit was striving for expression and working out individuality along its own spiritual lines. The vigour of his stroke impresses one as being untraditional.
“In the figure of the Dancer by Shunko, the pupil of Shunsho, we observe that, although through training and tradition the pupil has gained a greater facility, yet the simplicity of the master is lost in an excess of elaboration. The lines resemble those of Shunsho, though there is more uniformity of stroke, with a greater delicacy, but the simplicity of the first artist is merged in decorative purpose. Shunsho is distinctly simple and his lines have a blended quality of relation, giving a sense of repose which in the pupil is obscured by the tendency to elaborate.
“In epitomizing the cardinal qualities expressed in the Utamaro prints, the most marked is the suggestion of subjective, unconscious skill that gives no impress of the objective. Each line seems to come directly from the fountain-head of the man’s spiritual or soul nature, though this very soul nature expresses itself often along sensual lines. Indeed, were the artist less of a spiritual genius, he would often become revoltingly sensual. To the casual observer the lines of Utamaro show wonderful facility, and still greater delicacy, yet we cannot but observe underlying all his art, especially in its later phases, this subtle sensuality. The lower draperies of the Utamaro figures have an almost insinuating fullness.
“The compositions of Yeishi, upon superficial study, suggest marked facility and even some originality in line composition, with here and there an eccentricity which gives character to his treatment. The lines seem to be invariably broad and openly expressed. They lack the strong personality and vigorous treatment of Hokusai, the suggestive delicacy and voluptuousness of Utamaro, but seem to embody the vigorous calligraphic stroke of Kiyonaga. We can place Yeishi upon a plane of individuality because of his sensitive temperament which seemed to be influenced by his environment and his master teacher. This varied individuality was accompanied by a tendency towards imitation, yet a generous discrimination would concede to him facility, technic, refinement and rare judgment.
“The lines of Toyokuni show technical skill, and his calligraphic stroke is simple and vigorous, yet he lacks the spiritual and suggestive delicacy of Utamaro, giving the impression that externalities influenced him, rather than the finer shades of artistic interpretation.
His best work is histrionic and is full of individuality, breaking through the traditional stage attitudes, which impressed the artists who developed along his lines.
“Yeizan’s treatment is peculiarly his own, having a simplicity almost amounting to awkwardness expressed in a reserve of treatment. The casual observer is impressed by a sense of incompleteness, but this is overcome when the simple harmony of the lines is noted. Yeizan invariably breaks loose from his first reserve. Beginning very carefully he gradually loses his constraint, and the lower part of his drapery shows greater impulse of treatment.
“The work of Yeisen, showing much of Utamaro’s facility, with a touch of the vigour of Kiyonaga, is yet distinctly conceived along traditional lines. It bears the strong impress of decorative sense, but nevertheless the lines, though simple and well controlled, show rather the finished master of technic than the originative mind. In Yeisen we are less conscious of that emanating quality of originality and forceful personality that we feel in Harunobu, Hokusai and Utamaro.”
In analyzing the composition of the celebrated work by Hokusai, reproduced on the opposite page, Mr. Shepard comments: “In this, as in all Hokusai’s pictures, we note the combination of vigour and gentleness, characteristic aggression and insinuating suggestion, an absolutely masterly touch, and yet painstaking in minutiæ. The poise of the figure is admirable and absolutely satisfying in all matters of drawing. The treatment of the waves, which are peculiarly characteristic of the master’s touch, in their foamy sputter suggest a comparison with the strength of Hiroshige’s huge billows, majestic in their oily smoothness and sweeping grace. Giving the impression of the middle distance, the artist has delicately approached with the most wonderful ease, the vapory suggestion of the distant mountain line. He slips from the vigour of the foreground with a parallel stroke of astonishing freedom, seeming almost to remain poised, so that we reach without violence the faintly suggested distance as if we had unconsciously slid from reality into dreamland, unknowing of the transition. Hokusai possesses a masterly technic, a characteristic vigour, imagination, delicacy ofttimes opposed by a brutal ruggedness, and above all a pervading sense of humour.”