Introduction

As we enter the 21st century, it is important to reflect how nearly instantaneous worldwide communication has dramatically affected modern life. A universal culture has begun to replace distinct local cultures and modern lifestyles around the world are becoming more alike. Yet, despite the constant interaction of diverse cultures around the globe and almost certainly because of it, there has arisen the conscious need to identify and recover what is peculiar and particular in the world's cultural traditions.

The ukiyoe (floating world pictures) exhibited from the Sweet Briar College collection present images of and perspectives on Japanese women during the 250 years of peaceful isolation under the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1867), the period just prior to the "opening" of Japan to the West. This period and the culture it created have come to represent to the modern Japanese all that is particular and peculiar in Japanese national character. It is especially the bourgeois culture that evolved during the Genroku era (1788-1825) when the Japanese experienced rapid urban growth, regional specialization, and the establishment of a large economic middle class, that continues to inform modern Japanese notions of women, education, literature, the arts, and even the meaning of the geography and topography of Japan.

The most important element of this Genroku era culture was the concept of the ukiyo or "floating world". Traditionally a Buddhist concept that referred to mankind's ever-changing and therefore unreliable existence, ukiyo came to mean the ever-changing world of pleasure and entertainment pursued by the middle class. Every aspect of this floating world was captured and celebrated in the ukiyoe or woodblock prints produced during the 18th-19th century. In many respects the views of women, children, and the natural and domestic worlds of Japanese society presented in these continue to be facets of the modern Japanese ethos.

Aesthetics

The Japanese woodblock prints that proliferated during the Tokugawa period utilize artistic metaphors and standards of representation that can be traced back to the classical Heian period (c.714-1185), when the Japanese fused Buddhism to Shinto. The Shinto veneration of the natural world and the topographical features of the island nation were translated into a set of aesthetic standards that found unique form in the Tokugawa period. These included the standard of simplicity derived from the Shinto veneration of the natural world, irregularity and asymmetry based on Shinto recognition of change and growth as the primary characteristic of existence, impermanence or transience derived from Shinto-Buddhist teachings about insubstantiality, and the intimation of past and future experiences based on Buddhist notions of imagined realities. In the Essays in Idleness, Kenko (1283-1350) described these values in the following terms:

"It is excellent for a man to be simple in his tastes, to avoid extravagance, to own no possessions, to entertain no craving for worldly success. It has been true since ancient days that wise men are rarely rich. . . . In everything, no matter what it may be, uniformity is undesirable. Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting, and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth. . . In all things, it is the beginnings and the ends that are interesting. Does the love between men and women refer only to the moments when they are in each other's arms?. . .The man who grieves over (or anticipates) a love affair . . . such a man truly knows what love means. . . It is only after the silk wrapper (on a scroll) has frayed at top and bottom, and the mother-of-pearl has fallen from the roller that a scroll looks beautiful"

 

These principles are well represented by Kitagawa Utamaro's Frozen Dipper (inside front cover). Simplicity is demonstrated by Utamaro in the subject matter: the act of drawing water from a partially frozen cistern. It is also evident in the long thin lines defining the figures, the pale quality of the colors, peach and green, and only the suggestion of a background. Utamaro's asymmetry can be seen in the placement of two figures on the edge of a platform that dominate the right hand side of the print. To the left of center is negative space, the cartouche of Utamaro, and the mass of the stone from which the water is being drawn. The subject matter is frozen water and the momentary but perishable beauty of the ice that has formed around the dipper. The print depicts the process of drawing water and the suggestion of unspoken communication between the two figures. The imbedding of mica in the ice around the dipper, the pale color of the kimono, and the refinement of stroke and line convey the fragility of the moment.

An understanding of the symbolic forms the prints contain can enhance their enjoyment. Eastern iconography uses a flower bud to symbolize the future; the open flower, the present; the fading flower, the past. The Japanese use of pale pink, as the color of youth, is suggestive of the moment when that youth will give way to full womanhood, because the fruit is preceded by the blossom. What matters in Japanese art is not the external image of nature, but the emotional reaction it can evoke in the spectator. The ukiyoe of women are not meant to be naturalistic representations of real women, but are meant to convey the ideals of femininity as they were understood during this period.