Yoshitoshi
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| Tsukioka Yoshitoshi | |
 Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (Owariya Yonejiro) |
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| Born | 1839 Edo, Japan |
| Died | June 9, 1892 |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Field | Ukiyo-e |
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839 - June 9, 1892) (Japanese: 月岡 芳年; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi 大蘇 芳年) was a Japanese artist.
He is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing. He is additionally regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras - the last years of the old feudal Japan, and the first years of the new modern Japan. Like many Japanese, while interested in the new things from the rest of the world, over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many outstanding things from the traditional Japan, among them the traditional woodblock print.
By the end of his career, Yoshitoshi was in an almost single-handed struggle against time and technology. As he worked on in the old manner, Japan was adopting the mass reproduction methods of the West, like photography and lithography. Nonetheless, in a Japan that was turning away from its own past, he almost single-handedly managed to push the traditional Japanese woodblock print to a new level, before it effectively died with him.
His life is perhaps best summed up by John Stevenson:
- Yoshitoshi's courage, vision and force of character gave ukiyo-e another generation of life, and illuminated it with one last burst of glory.
- -- Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, 1992
His reputation has only continued to grow, both in the West, and among younger Japanese, and he is now almost universally recognized as the greatest Japanese artist of his era.
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[edit] Biography
He was born in old Edo, in 1839. His father was a wealthy merchant who had bought his way into samurai status. At three years old, Yoshitoshi left home to live with his uncle, a pharmacist with no son, who was very fond of his nephew.
At the age of 5 he looked at the wonderful print and started to take lessons of his uncle, his uncle knew a bit but wasn't the best at printing. After a 2 months of printing with his uncle he decided to go to a professional and learn some more.
In in 1850 when he was 11 years old, Yoshitoshi was apprenticed to Kuniyoshi, one of great masters of the Japanese woodblock print. Kuniyoshi gave his apprentice a new name (he was originally named Owariya Yonejiro). Although he was not seen as Kuniyoshi's successor in his lifetime, he is now recognized as the chief pupil of Kuniyoshi. During his training, Yoshitoshi concentrated on refining his draftsmanship skills and copying his mentor’s sketches. Kuniyoshi emphasized drawing from real life, which was unusual in Japanese training because the artist’s goal was to capture the subject matter rather than making a literal interpretation of it. Yoshitoshi also learned the elements of western drawing techniques and perspective through studying Kuniyoshi’s collection of foreign prints and engravings.
Yoshitoshi's first print appeared in 1853, but nothing else appeared for many years, perhaps as a result of the illness of his master Kuniyoshi during his last years. Although his life was hard after Kuniyoshi's death in 1861, he did manage to produce some work, 44 prints of his being known from 1862.
His early work is full of extremely graphic violence and death. These themes were at least partly inspired by the deaths of Kuniyoshi and of Yoshitoshi's father in 1863 and by the lawlessness and violence of the Japan around him, which was simultaneously going through the breakdown of the feudal system imposed by the Tokugawa shogunate, as well as the impact of contact with Westerners. Between the years of 1862-1863 he had sixty-three of his designs, mostly kabuki prints, published.
In late 1863, Yoshitoshi began sketching severed heads and corpses. He would eventually incorporate these violent sketches into battle prints designed in a bloody and extravagant style. The public enjoyed these prints and Yoshitoshi began to move up in the ranks of ukiyo-e artist of this time in Edo. While he gained notoriety through his violent pieces in 1863, he was able to have ninety-five more of his designs published in 1865, most of which were military or historical in subject matter. Of the ninety-five prints published, two series' would bring Yoshitoshi’s creativity, originality, and imagination to light. The first series, Tsûzoku saiyûki, “A Modern Journey to the West”, is about a Chinese folk-hero, which is depicted by a monkey. The second is a series known as Wakan hyaku monogatari, “One Hundred Stories of China and Japan”, in which he illustrates traditional ghost stories. His imaginative prints set him apart from any other artist at this time. In 1866, Yoshitoshi designed the strange figures of Kinsei kyôgiden, “Biographies of Modern Men”, which depicted the power struggle between two gambling rings.
An example from this series is an illustration of Seiriki Tamigorô committing suicide. This series tells the story of two gambling rings in 1849 and their struggle for power. Iioká Sukegorô led the larger, stronger gambling ring, while a man named Hanzô led the other smaller ring. During an epic battle, Hanzô’s smaller force of twenty-five soldiers was able to drive away the larger force while only suffering one casualty. After the battle police cut off all means of escape for Sukegorô’s men. At this time one of Sukegorô’s men, Seiriki Tamigorô, took his gun and shot himself. The fighting between these two rings continued on even after this battle.
Between 1866 and 1868 Yositoshi created several extremely disturbing prints. One of his most violent designs can be found in a series called Eimei nijûhasshûku, “Twenty-eight famous murders with verse”. These prints show killings in very graphic detail. Some show stabbings and decapitations of women with bloody handprints on their robes. Some other examples of Yoshitoshi’s violent and bloody designs, similar to that in Eimei nijûhasshûku, can be found in a series from 1867 called Azuma no nishiki ukiyo kôdan, “Tales of the floating world on the eastern brocade”. In 1868, following the Battle of Ueno, Yoshitoshi created a series of prints called Kaidai hyaku sensô in which he portrays contemporary military soldiers as historical figures in a semi-western style, using close-up and unusual angles. Most of these figures are shown in the heat of battle with desperate expressions. By 1869 he was regarded as one of the best woodblock artists in Japan.
Shortly thereafter, he ceased to receive commissions, perhaps because the public were tired of scenes of violence. By 1871, Yoshitoshi became severely depressed, and his personal life became one of great turmoil, which was to continue sporadically until his death. He lived in appalling conditions with his devoted mistress, Okoto, who sold off her clothes and possessions to support him. At one point they were reduced to burning the floor-boards from the house for warmth.
His fortunes started to turn by 1873, when his mood improved, and he started to produce more prints. In recognition of his improved circumstances, at this point he changed his family name to Taiso (meaning "great resurrection"). Newspapers sprung up in the modernization drive, and Yoshitoshi was hired to produced prints for one. His financial condition was still precarious, though, and in 1876, his mistress Okoto, in a traditionally Japanese gesture of devotion, sold herself to a brothel to help him.
With the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, in which the old feudal order made one last attempt to stop the new Japan, newspaper circulation soared, and woodblock artists were in demand, with Yoshitoshi earning much attention. The prints he did gave him public recognition, and the money was a help, but it was not until 1882 that he was secure.
In late 1877, he took up with a new mistress, the geisha Oraku; like Okotu, she sold her clothes and possessions to support him, and when they separated after a year, she too hired herself out to a brothel.
By this point, the woodblock industry was in severe straits. All the great woodblock artists of the early part of the century, Hiroshige, Kunisada, and Kuniyoshi, had all died, and the wooblock print as an art form was dying in the confusion of modernizing Japan. Yoshitoshi insisted on high standards of production, and helped save it temporarily from degeneracy.
In 1880, he met another woman, a former Geisha with two children, Sakamaki Taiko. They were married in 1884, and while he continued to philander, her gentle and patient manner seems to have helped stabilize him.
His last years were among his most productive, with his great series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885 - 1892), and New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts (1889 - 1892), as well as some masterful triptychs of kabuki theatre actors and scenes.
During this period he also cooperated with his friend, the actor Danjuro, and others, in an attempt to perserve some of the traditional Japanese arts.
In his last years, his mental problems started to recur. In early 1891 he invited friends to a gathering of artists that did not actually exist, but rather turned out to be a delusion. After more symptoms, he was admitted to a mental hospital. He eventually left, in May 1892, but did not return home, instead renting rooms.
He died three weeks later in a rented room, on June 9, 1892, from a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 53 years old.
- holding back the night
- with its increasing brilliance
- the summer moon
- -- Yoshitoshi's death poem
[edit] Appealing theme
Yoshitoshi’s violent, bloody designs made him a well-known figure among Japanese pop culture and in the West as well. It is said that his work has had an impact on writers like Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886-1965) as well as many others. He also made an impression on many artists including Yokoo Tadanori and Masami Teraoka.
The common theme of the art in Japan, during the early 19th century, was that of horror and cruelty. It was expressed through plays, books, and woodblock prints. Artists such as Hokusai, Kunisada, and Kuniyoshi designed many of these images. Yoshitoshi was a product of his time, and while studying under Kuniyoshi, he developed the skills of creating horrifyingly graphic designs. Twenty-eight murders with verse, based on a design by Kuniyoshi, is often said to be one of his most disturbing designs.
Between 1867 and 1868, with the country at war, Yoshitoshi’s images allowed those who were not directly involved in the fighting to experience it vicariously through his work. The public was attracted to Yoshitoshi’s work for several reasons. His composition and draftsmanship were the major attraction, but they were also attracted to his passion and intense involvement with his subject matter. The involvement with his subjects was not limited to the violent prints; it also included the serenity and psychological perceptions of his later works.
Yoshitoshi was a man with a vivid imagination that allowed him to design prints that were brutal and violent. The designs of violence and killing are what the public buyers and publishers wanted to see during this time. Not only was Yoshitoshi trying to sell his work, he was also trying to exorcise the demons of horror that he and his fellow countrymen were going through during this period. The majority, not all, of his violent prints were designed between 1866 and 1868. Later in his career his interests changed from the graphic illustrations of killing to the emotional aspect of war and murder. During these later years, Yoshitoshi left the graphically violent designs up to the viewer’s interpretation instead of creating a design filled with blood.
Although Yoshitoshi made a name for himself through creating designs that were shocking and bloody, it was only a small part of his work. The emphasis is normally placed solely on these aspects, which portrays an inaccurate perception of his work. Critics, many times, choose to show the bloodiest illustrations of a series of prints, leaving out the more subtle and interesting designs. When this occurs it deprives the viewer of seeing the variety of subtlety and insight in Yoshitoshi’s work.
[edit] Retrospective observations
During his life he produced many series of prints, and a large number of triptychs, many of great merit. Two of his three best-known series, the One Hundred Aspects of the Moon and Thirty-Six Ghosts, contain numerous masterpieces. The third, Thirty-Two Aspects of Customs and Manners, was for many years the most highly regarded of his work, but does not now have that same status. Other less-common series also contain many fine prints, including Famous Generals of Japan, A Collection of Desires, New Selection of Eastern Brocade Pictures, and Lives of Modern People.
While demand for his prints continued for a few years, eventually interest in him waned, both in Japan, and around the world. The canonical view in this period was that the generation of Hiroshige was really the last of the great woodblock artists, and more traditional collectors stopped even earlier, at the generation of Utamaro and Toyokuni.
However, starting in the 1970s, interest in him resumed, and reappraisal of his work has shown the quality, originality and genius of the best of it, and the degree to which he succeeded in keeping the best of the old Japanese woodblock print, while pushing the field forward by incorporating both new ideas from the West, as well as his own innovations.
[edit] Print series
Here is a partial list of his print series, with dates:
- One Hundred Stories of Japan and China (1865-1866)
- Biographies of Modern Men (1865-1866)
- Twenty-Eight Famous Murders with Verses (1866-1869)
- One Hundred Warriors (1868-1869)
- Biographies of Drunken Valiant Tigers (1874)
- Mirror of Beauties Past and Present (1876)
- Famous Generals of Japan (1876-1882)
- A Collection of Desires (1877)
- Eight Elements of Honor (1878)
- Twenty-Four Hours with the Courtesans of Shimbashi and Yanagibashi (1880)
- Warriors Trembling with Courage (1883-1886)
- Yoshitoshi Manga (1885-1887)
- One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885-1892)
- Personalities of Recent Times (1886-1888)
- Thirty-Two Aspects of Customs and Manners (1888)
- New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts (1889-1892)
[edit] References
- ^ Stevenson, John (1992). Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects of the Moon. San Francisco Graphic Society, 49. ISBN 0963221809.
[edit] Further reading
- Eric van den Ing, Robert Schaap, Beauty and Violence: Japanese Prints by Yoshitoshi 1839-1892 (Havilland, Eindhoven, 1992) is the standard work on him
- Shinichi Segi, Yoshitoshi: The Splendid Decadent (Kodansha, Tokyo, 1985) is an excellent, but rare, overview of him
- T. Liberthson, Divine Dementia: The Woodblock Prints of Yoshitoshi (Shogun Gallery, Washington, 1981) contains small illustrations of many of his lesser works
- John Stevenson, Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (San Francisco Graphic Society, Redmond, 1992)
- John Stevenson, Yoshitoshi's Women: The Print Series 'Fuzoku Sanjuniso' (Avery Press, 1986)
- John Stevenson, Yoshitoshi's Thirty-Six Ghosts (Weatherill, New York, 1983)
- John Stevenson, Yoshitoshi’s Strange Tails (Amsterdam. Hotei Publishing 2005).
- Van den Ing, E., & Schaap, R. (1992). Beauty and Violence: Japanese Prints by Yoshitoshi 1839-1892. Amsterdam. Society for Japanese Arts.
[edit] External links
- Tsukioka Yoshitoshi - Contains images of many of his prints
- Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Online
- 100 Views of the Moon - The complete online reference
