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(★)(The brilliant and intimately appealing art of the ukiyo-e woodblock print, which flourished in Japan from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century, is no doubt the most universally known of all Japanese arts. Originating as a genuine art of the common people, it reflected their delight in the sensuous attractions of what they called the ´floating world´ --in large part the world of the theater and the demimonde. Its chief subjects were beautiful and licentious women (notably the glamorous courtesans of the Yoshiwara), Kabuki actors, and landscapes frequently peopled with characters from everyday life-- all presented with a vividness that even today instantly evokes the pleasure-loving merchant-townsman culture of late-feudal-period Japan. This lavishly illustrated book, with 49 reproductions of masterworks in full color and 129 in black and white, covers the history of the art from its beginnings in the monochrome prints of Moronobu to its magnificent climax in the polychrome prints of the six great masters --Harunobu, Kiyonaga, Utamaro, Sharaku, Hokusai, and Hiroshige-- and its pathetic but inevitable decline. Of particular value is the attention given to the lives of the artists themselves and to the social environment that motivated and influenced their achievement. In this respect, and in contrast with books by non-Japanese writers dealing with the ukiyo-e print, the book is illuminated by countless fascinating sidelights that only a Japanese writer on the subject can provide. At the same time the aesthetic qualities of the prints themselves are skillfully appraised, and the reader has the privilege of viewing these works of art through the eyes of a renowned critic and devoted collector. ◆Seiichiro Takahashi was born in 1884 and graduated in 1908 from Keio University, where he earned his doctor´s degree in economics. Although a professional economist widely known for his writings in this field, he was perhaps even better known as an authority on the ukiyo-e woodblock print and as the owner of a splendid collection of prints assembled over a period of some sixty years. Mr. Takahashi, long a member of the Japan Academy, professor emeritus of his alma mater, and chairman of the Japan Art Academy, died on February 9, 1982, at the age of 97.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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