H.GREEN-COURSE HUB
  • COURSE PAGES
  • Fieldtrips/Events
  • LINKS/RESOURCES
  • STUDENT GALLERY
  • RESEARCH BLOG
  • Lab/Press Sign Up

Utagawa Hiroshige

11/14/2016

 
Nicholas Rennemann

               Hiroshige was a Japanese artist that lived in the 19th century during Japan’s Edo period. He is known for his highly stylized ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings, and went on to inspire the likes of Van Gogh and Monet. Ukiyo-e translates to “pictures of the floating world,” which is very fitting given the atmosphere his distinctly Japanese stylizations create. Hiroshige’s works reflect the culture and time period he lived in perfectly. The artist frequently chose to display unique interpretations of different provinces throughout Japan. The different prints often culminated into a series depicting a variety of scenes that can be found within a single province. 
            The first attached image is of “Night Snow at Kanbara,” the sixteenth print from Hiroshige’s “The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido” series. The work is very well known today for being the album cover of the rock band Weezer’s sophomore effort Pinkerton. Although this might initially seem to be a strange pairing, the theme of isolation and the soft, reflective nature of the piece perfectly matches the lyrics and overall tone of the album. It is impressive how much depth Hiroshige was able to include within the scene, given that much of the subject matter is covered in a stark white layer of snow. 
            The second image I have attached is of “Drum Bridge at Meguro and Sunset Hill,” print number 111 from Hiroshige’s series “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.” Made in 1854, the piece shows some villagers using a bridge to cross a stream. A majority of the scene is similarly hidden underneath a layer of snow, emphasizing the blue water and starry night sky. Given that the woodblock process tends to limit the amount of colors used in a print, Hiroshige consistently maintains an extraordinary sense of balance and layout in regards to color placement. The people that appear in Hiroshige’s prints almost always have their faces hidden behind large hats or umbrellas, perhaps done to draw attention toward the surrounding nature. Regardless of the artist’s reasons for doing so, it is a very effective and thematically rich idea. 
            Katsutoshi Yuasa is a modern artist that would be a suitable comparison to Hiroshige. The former uses photographs as references to aid in creating his own unique woodcut prints (seen in the third attached image). Although the artists both use woodcut methods to produce their creations, the results are very different from each other. In comparison to Hiroshige’s simple forms and figures, Yuasa’s subjects are very intricately detailed. Nature is a recurring theme in both lines of works. Yuasa’s pieces, however, are usually black and white, and have a particularly ghostly feel to them. In contrast, Hiroshige’s scenes have more of a whimsical feel, and incorporate soft fills of color against large stretches of white. These aspects highlight how versatile the woodcutting process can be, with new artists continuing to find their own approaches to techniques that are many centuries old.
 
Artist: Katsutoshi Yuasa.” Mark Jason Gallery. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
Holmes, Charles. "Hiroshige: An Appreciation." Hiroshige.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Sean O'Day
11/17/2016 10:33:33 pm

Jonathan this was elegantly written! Your words capture your passion and knowledge of Ando Hiroshige and the Japanese culture in general. I took Art of East Asia earlier this semester and touched on ukiyo-e but I was not aware of the meaning. Seriously the love you have for this subject really showed through and made me appreciate reading about it even more. I was fascinated to learn about the Japanese work on silk I mean their imagery is so beautiful and tranquil. Thank you for sharing Ando's woodblocks it was a fantastic read.


Comments are closed.

    Categories

    All
    Altered Books
    Artists
    Artists' Books
    Asian Artists
    Asian Books
    Asian Paper
    Asian Typefaces
    Ceramics
    Collections
    Comics & Graphic Novels
    Designers
    Digital Art
    DIY
    Environmental Impacts
    Feminism
    Fore-Edge Painting
    Herbal
    History Of Paper
    History Of The Book
    History Of Type
    Illuminated Manuscripts
    Interviews
    Letterpress
    Letterpress Shops
    Marbling
    Museums
    On-demand Book Publishing
    Paper Fibers
    Papermaking
    Phoenix
    Photographic Artist Book
    Photography
    Photopolymer
    Pop-ups
    Portland
    Printmaking Techniques
    Rare Books
    Sculptural Paper
    Software
    Technology
    Type Foundry
    Typography
    Walter Hamady
    Watermarks
    Zines

ASU/Herberger Institute School of Art/Printmaking/Book Arts
Heather Green: heather.j.green@asu.edu
​
Office: 45B |  Office hours: T 11:00–12:00 or by appointment

  • COURSE PAGES
  • Fieldtrips/Events
  • LINKS/RESOURCES
  • STUDENT GALLERY
  • RESEARCH BLOG
  • Lab/Press Sign Up