"Surface of Lake Misaka, Kai Province," Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1830-2.

Hokusai (1760-1849) is important not only as amazing artist in his own right, but as a major influence on Western art.

THE major painter of the ukiyo-e school, he was also a driving force in moving the style from just being about portraits of courtesans and actors, to being about landscapes, plants, and animals.

This is part of his woodblock print series "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji" which includes that famous tidal wave painting that everyone has seen. That series was a bestseller in Japan and influenced later artists who began publishing their own prints of various scenes around Japan.

Hokusai's work became popular in Europe in the latter half of the 19th century, and many of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, like Monet, Renoir, and Gauguin, were fans of his and admitted their debt to him.

Interestingly, the mountain in this print is clear of snow, while the reflection shows the famous snow cap. Nobody is sure why that is; perhaps a symbol of the seasons, or perhaps just a way to draw the eye to the reflection. It's hard to believe it was just a goof!

From a private collection.

#Art #Hokusai #Ukiyo_e #MountFuji #AsianArt #JapaneseArt #ILoveThis

"Woman with Morning Glories," Katsushika Ōi, c. 1820s.

Katsushika (c. 1800 - c. 1866) was the daughter of the great Hokusai, by his second wife, but also an accomplished artist in her own right.

Not a lot about her life is known for sure, except she was her father's apprentice and assistant, and married another artist...but divorced him three years later. She moved back in with her father and never remarried, the two of them always busy with their art.

This print is intriguing; at first glance the woman seems to be simpering at the bowl of morning glories (on a tray that absurdly resembles a bathroom scale to modern eyes), but a closer look shows what may be a sheet of paper hidden behind the fan. Is she reading a clandestine letter? A poem from a lover? A naughty print? Who knows?

Sadly, not much of her art is known to survive to this day, but it is known that she was highly regarded in her lifetime. It's possible that some of her work is misattributed to others, including her father. But she remains the object of study and admiration.

Happy Flower Friday!

From the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

#Art #KasushikaOi #JapaneseArt #AsianArt #ukiyo_e #MorningGlory #WomenArtists #WomenInArt #FlowerFriday

"Bathtime," Kitagawa Utamaro, c. 1801.

The life of Utamaro (c.1753-1806) is largely a mystery; we don't know where he was born or who his family was. Many believe he was married and had a child, as the same mother and child show up in a lot of his prints of domestic life.

His work first appeared in the 1770s, at the height of Japan's Edo period; at the time, he worked mostly designing prints for books, but later gave that up for making prints of individual women. His portraits of women, many of them geishas, made his fame. He later went on to do many works of insects, flowers, animals, erotica, and scenes of domestic life. He was arrested in 1804 for violating Imperial censorship laws, seemingly by depicting samurai with their crests accurately copied, which was forbidden, but it's unknown what his punishment was.

This is from his later period, perhaps a depiction of his wife and child. It's a sincerely portrayed work of an intimate moment between mother and child. Upon his death in 1806, he had no known heirs, and his tomb was left neglected and untended, until fans restored it in 1917.

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

#Art #JapaneseArt #KitagawaUtamaro #ukiyo_e #WomenInArt #MothersInArt #AsianArt

"Temma Bridge at Settsu Province," Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1834.

Hokusai (c. 1760-1849) is THE great Japanese artist; I recall learning about him as a child, from a book that also taught about Leonardo da Vinci and Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

Temma Bridge (also called Tenman or Tenma) once stood over the Yodo River in Osaka, which was an important waterway at the time. Here it is depicted at the height of the Tenjin Festival, a huge affair that involves a river procession followed by fireworks.

This was part of Hokusai's series of prints, "Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces" and may have been based on an earlier print that emphasized its semicircular shape.

I may have to look up this series; there's something about the idea of a collection of views of bridges that I find enormously charming.

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

#Art #AsianArt #JapaneseArt #Hokusai #ukiyo_e #Bridges #Prints

"Noisy: A Young Woman of the Kansei Period with a Purring Cat," Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1888.

Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) was the last great master of the ukiyo-e woodblock print, and an innovator of the style, at a time when Japan's culture was rapidly modernizing and leaving traditional arts and styles behind.

He was coming off a period of severe depression after his fame for producing bloody prints of violence faded...he was reflecting the violence in Japanese culture at the time. However, he found a career resurrection in producing images of actors in various dramas, and the eternal ukiyo-e subject, beautiful women.

The identity of this woman is unknown; although she's shown in the dress and style of the Kansei period (1789-1801), it's likely that the subject was a geisha or courtesan. Her snuggling of the cat is an unconventional pose, but charming. The cat even has the requisite bell on its collar.

Sadly, Yoshitoshi's physical and mental health began to deteriorate. He was hospitalized for a while, but was released and died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 53.

From the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

#Art #JapaneseArt #AsianArt #TsukiokaYoshitoshi #Ukiyo_e #WomenInArt #CatsOfMastodon

"Three Women Playing Musical Instruments," Katsushika Ōi, 1850.

Katsushika Ōi (c. 1800 - c. 1866) was the daughter of the great Hokusai and a very talented painter in her own right. Little about her life is known, not even her exact dates. It is known that she married unhappily in 1824, and divorced her husband three years later. She never remarried, remaining with her father to tend to his workshop and work alongside him.

She was especially talented in the bijin-ga genre, or "paintings of beautiful women," of which this is an example. We have three ladies (one with her back turned to us, a daring stylistic choice for the time) playing assorted traditional Japanese instruments( (sorry, my education doesn't cover what these may be). I'm not sure if these are meant to be geishas or court ladies or what, but it is kind of charming to see these ladies sitting and playing music, facing each other rather than an audience....which makes me lean toward them being court ladies, playing for the joy of it.

From the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

#Art #AsianArt #JapaneseArt #WomenAritsts #KatsushikaOi #Ukiyo_e #Bijin_ga #Music