Essays Guru

CATALOGUE ENTRY: TOKAIDO ROAD ART

Name

Course Code:

Date :

Catalogue Entry

Artist, Date, and Nationality

Ando Hiroshige is the name of the Japanese artist who designed the Tokaido Road art. Initially, he was born under the name of Ando Tokutaro. His father was a warden of the fire brigade to the Edo Castle. There are several episodes that suggest that the young Hiroshige had developed a penchant for sketching, a practice that is most likely to have motivated him to pursue the school of art and painting at the traditional Kano institution.[footnoteRef:1] Shortly after the death of his mother in 1809, Hiroshige’s father resigned from his job, passing it over to his son. Earlier the following year, his father died as well. As an Orphan, Hiroshige’s daily tasks as a fireman were few, resulting in minimal wages. Consequently, he resorted to spending a major fraction of his free time learning at the Utagawa painting school and became am pupil of Utagawa Torohiro, a popular Japanese artist. [1: Mikhail Uspensky, Hiroshige (New York: Packstone Press Internaitonal, 2010), 10. ]

In 1812, he received a reward under the name of Utagawa Hiroshige after obtaining a license of practicing art. In the Ukiyo-e literature, he is still commonly referred to as Hiroshige Ando. In 1812, his first literary and artistic works were published. However, he did not immediately start to develop landscape prints until 1830s. This is partly attributed to the fact that his main were mainly comprised of prints of beautiful women and actors. Nonetheless, he gradually gave up figure prints for landscapes and began, under the influence of the great Hokusai, to design a collection of works that made him rise to popularity. In 1832, he travelled to Kyoto and Edo, along the famous highway known as the Tokaido, where he stayed at the 53 overnight stations along the road and developed many sketches of almost everything that he observed.[footnoteRef:2] For instance, he designed a series of 55 landscape prints titled Fifty-three Stations on the Tokaido, one for each respective station, as well as the beginning of the highway and arrival in Tokyo. The successful completion of these artistic series were immediate and turned Hiroshige one of the most popular Ukiyo-e artists of all times. [2: Ibid., 11]

Materials Used

There are various materials that were utilized to develop Hiroshige’s print. Considering the rich history of Ukiyo-e, it is important to explore some of the essential methods that Hiroshige utilized in his print. For instance, he utilized the Japanese approach to printing the color woodcut. [footnoteRef:3]These include application of water-based inks and blending of watercolor washes directly on the blocks. This leads to amazing watercolor qualities and impressions that appear to be more monotypes in the print. Nonetheless, this type of application is done in a skillful way to the extent that the artist is able to repeat the complicated wash effects and make consistent multiple editions. The traditional approach that Hiroshige utilizes is ritualistic to some degree. While mastering the manual skill required of Ukiyo-e artisans is impossibility in the contemporary culture, adjusting some of the approaches is highly possible for the modern artists. In light of the above, it is important to identify a list of rudimentary materials that Hiroshige used and the procedure. [3: John Ross, Claire Romano, and Tim Ross, Complete Printmaker (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009) 38. ]

In his work on the Tokaido Road, Hiroshige utilizes several materials and tools. They include: basic woodcut tools, wood, cutting knife, V gouge, C gouges, small chisels, large chisels, as well as brush for sizing. Other important tools used included: paper, boards for cutting, sumi ink, brushes for applying color, pigments, library pastes, alum, and animal glue in stick forms.[footnoteRef:4] The main type of wood that Hiroshige uses is yamazakura wood, which is a species of wild cherry. Since this wood is hard, it is often difficult to cut. Nonetheless, it is essential for the fine lines and great detail that is so common in the Ukiyo-e prints, and the large editions that are often common. Tools used for printing were sharpened on whetstones, known as toishi. These are often made of sedimentary natural stones or a ceramic material. [4: Ibid., 38]

The baren is a pressing and rubbing tool that is utilized for printing. It serves as an ingenious simple tool that si beautifully designed for utilization for porous Japanese paper. It is also comprised of flat and coiled strands of cord, strips of bamboo sheaths, as well as a backing sheath.[footnoteRef:5] The backing disk is utilized to hold the coil of cord. Almost 5.5 inches in diameter, it is comprised of many layers of Japanese paper that are molded on a form, and then covered with silk tissues. Further, when it comes to the traditional Japanese printmaking, brushes are often utilized as opposed to rollers.[footnoteRef:6] This is especially true when there is need to apply pigments to the block, and to blend and grade the colors. The choice of paper was in many ways more significant in Hiroshige’s printing than the western methods. This depends upon the degree of absorbency that is influenced by the strength of the sizing utilized on the paper. [5: Ibid., 39] [6: Ibid., 39]

Description of the Object

Hiroshige’s Tokaido Road is one of the most celebrated works of the Japanese artist. This painting depicts a major highway that crosses the Pacific Ocean. Beside it is a spectacular landscape and fascinating characters that are busy using the highway. The Tokaido Road is depicted as a major highway that links the city of Edo and Kyoto. Part of this road is the Floating World. In it Hiroshige showcases the great bridge of Senjum, which crosses the Arakawa River. The Senju Bridge was designed and built in 1594 and was used for almost three centuries before it was washed away by the giant flood of 1885. Part of this printing depicts the famous Mount Buko. This printing of wood grain and the crisp details suggest that the image is essentially an edition. The wooden grain creates an impression of rhythms and patterns within the water, thereby adding a rich texture to its surface.

Hiroshige depicts the bridge as an infrastructure that is built based on sturdy constriction and rot-resistant timber. The buildings on the far side of the object also form part of the Senju settlements, which is the first official town on the road to the north. It served as one of Edo’s four post stations, as well as the Shinagwa and Itabashi. The bridge showed in this print composition was also the only bridge that was used to cross Sumida, a local term for Senju River for the first 70 years of the Shogunate rein on Edo and the surrounding provisional territories. As a policy, the rulers directed that no bridge was to be developed that linked the city to likely enemies to its north.

Critical Analysis of the object: Summary

With the development of the Senju Bridge printing, Hiroshige radically transformed and elevated the Japanese art and literary world to new heights and levels internationally. Consequently, the printing changed the Japanese landscape art genre from being merely the background to becoming the picture itself.[footnoteRef:7] In so doing, the work of art resulted in the filling up of the whole sheet with solid color. From a technical perspective, the visual effects that Hiroshige’s The Senju Bridge works did from earlier productions can be termed as utilizing strong and perfect curves and diagonals. The bridge and other components of the print work were also designed with the utilization of drawings of moving objects that shift towards or away from the viewers’ eyes. In so doing, they contrast the scales of physical elements that loom at the horizontal. This dwarfs the travellers passing across the bridge. It also makes use of strong outlines, vivid colors, as well as a general lack of comprehensive details relating to the depiction of the travelers. [7: Traganou Jilly, The Tokaido Road: Traveling and representation in Edo and Meiji Japan (New York, Taylor & Francis, 2004), 173.]

In The Senju Bridge printing, Hiroshige largely capitalizes on the successes of his previous series. A case in point is his previous successful work related to gyosho, which was named after the running script calligraphy utilized in many inscriptions. Hiroshige’s travel experience along the Tokaido inspired the development of the Senju Bridge. [footnoteRef:8]This partly contributes to the vividness of his road-scenes. Thus, it is important not to overlook the impacts of the traditional paintings of Hiroshige’s prints. These are normally strongly imaginative and sometimes have minimal issues related to the visually observed realities associated with the Senju Bridge painting. Although Hiroshige’s printing is strongly inspired by this trip, his interest and focus on the landscape representation is more artistic as opposed to being informative. In this respect, the Senju Bridge depicts much more than the maps. Thus, Hiroshuige feels freer nor to depict the Tokaido’s scenery in more accurate sense. [8: Ibid., 173]

Hiroshige’s Senju Bridge can be said to have been influenced by previous representations as opposed to the precise elements that he observed in his insightful trip to Tokaido. For instance, the Senju Bridge and Dshimada of his Hoeido seris bear major similarities in art forms in terms of the views of the river in Tokaido meisho zue. Nonetheless, in as much as both views of the river are taken from the left side as if they being viewed from Kyoto, Hiroshige’s Senju Bridge is viewed from the side of Edo, thereby depicting a reverse from conventional view. This implies that the viewpoint has been alternated in a manner that is not different from the most widely used cinematic technique associated with the contemporary artistic concepts. [footnoteRef:9]In this respect, the figures shown in Hiroshige’s prints, although indicating a wider freedom compared to the stylistic reflections viewed in the Senju Bridge, mixes realistic and the mythological characters that are drawn from legendary personalities for which the Tokaido sceneries were widely known during the traditional era. [9: Ibid., 174]

The distinct bridge and mountainous views of the portrait are designed to be cut and pasted on modern screens, among other things, particularly for the purpose of undertaking decorations. Therefore, Hiroshige acts as an astute individual in relation to the development of the work of art. This is because his style varies not just on the different subjects, but also when it comes to the styles with which different components are derived. For example, Hirosgige utilizes an extensively more shijo–like art and style than he utilizes in his former prints, and makes references to the yamato-e that are often unusual in the rest of his works. In light of the above, the Tokaido theme was not only central within the works of Hiroshige, but also within the wider body of works generated by the Utagawa school for which Hiroshige belonged. [footnoteRef:10]Within this renowned work of art, the audience is treated to the sight of collaborations, imitative series, and cross-fertilizations that would in the modern world be regarded as plagiarism. Nonetheless it can be accepted and favored owing to its distinctiveness. It also goes without stating that during this period of time, there were no copyright legislations. As such, all artists were allowed to develop a stock pile of motifs that were regarded as common property. [10: Ibid., 175]

Bibliography

Jilly, Traganou. The Tokaido Road: Traveling and representation in Edo and Meiji Japan. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2004.

Ross, John, Claire Romano, and Tim Ross. Complete Printmaker. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009.

Uspensky, Mikhail. Hiroshige. New York: Packstone Press Internaitonal, 2010.

Appendixes