The Development of the Human Figure in Japanese Art to that of the Bijin-ga
To define the term Bijin broadly, this means 'a beauty'. Beauty certainly in the Edo period favoured androgynous beauties, and was certainly not what the Western world defines today as beautiful, nor worked in the same frameworks or boundaries we apply to 'Beautiful people' today.[1]
Indeed the human body, unlike in the Western Canon and Japanese which survives, was seen as not necessarily the most favourable thing to be depicting in the early medieval period. Japanese art, during the Heian period certainly depicted figures, but these should be taken separately from the Bijin we know today, as they fall under their own branch of Heian aesthetics which mark the aesthetical and religious rank and tastes of the likes of Murasaki Shikibu & Lady Ise whom gallivanted around in Juni-hitoe, the Kosode's and Kimonos 12 layer ancestor. These styles and forms of art often depicted Beautiful women by the days aesthetical standards, but few examples survive and often show classic Buddhist or mythical figures in pursuit of the divine we see in Yamato-e.
The figure in Japanese art therefore is first seen in what we call today history and literature's Early Modern Period (1500 - 1700 for our purposes) in painting. Particularly, figures began cropping up in Japanese paintings with the start of Nanban Art (1543- 1629, derived from the Nanbanjin [Southern Barbarian; Foreigner] Trade) from 1550, particularly detailing the foreigners, warriors, guards and slaves of the wealthy, often Portuguese, traders who ran the trade. Today, 90 Nanban Byobu (南蛮屏風, Nanban Screens) survive today, a number in the style of the Kano and Tosa schools, mostly done portraying these foreign elements to Japan within Japanese genre scenes and materials for the most part. When these foreign elements (see Kirishitans) caused internal chaos, they were sent packing between 1597-1639, and totally shut off with the announcement of Sakoku (isolation policies) by the time mass scale print media became viable in Japan.[2]
Nanbanjin Byobu (c1600) Kano School
The History of Text in Woodblock Printing
Empress Koken (718-770)
Woodblock printing, imported from China (created in 220 AD) was first used by Buddhist scholars to print the Hyakumanto Darani (in 764-770) when Empress Koken requested 1 million tiny wooden pagodas be made which contained teeny-weeny woodblock printed scrolls of Buddhist text to be distributed around Buddhist temples across Japan for having helped to suppress the Emi Rebellion (764) against her enemy, the Fujiwara no Nakamo (706-764) in an imperial power spat after her son the Emperor died. Following this, printing (texts) became the work of Buddhist priests until from the 10th century on when they printed sutras, mandalas and Buddhist iconography accompanying the text, as it was too labour intensive for production outside the temples, with some being printed in the 12th century onto court fans using woodblocks. Presses were introduced by the Nanbanjin trade and some from Korea by the 1590s in a limited number, mostly for printing Portuguese catechism texts, given the time-consuming nature of producing the 100,000 logographs for the Japanese texts than the 30 - 50 types in foreign Latin languages.[3]
Sutras in the Scroll of Mudras (c.1000-1100)
Mandala of Monju Bosatsu (c.1200)
4 Deities of Koyasan Complex (c.1350-1400)
A Gay Old Time
By this time the beautiful figure in Japanese art as we know it began to take shape from the beginning of the Tokugawa reign in 1603. Text though was still more quickly produced on woodblocks and the first Japanese texts made in Saga by Hon-nami and Suminokura combined text and images in The Tales of Ise (1608). Later came illustrated folk tales (Tanrokuban; c1624) in 2 tone orange/green colours.[3]
Tales of Ise (1608)
With the new Sankin Kotai (alternate attendance) edicts of the Tokugawa, the Tozama daimyou (outer circle lords) in 1635 and by 1642 also the Fudai daimyou (inner circle lords) began moving into the cities for half of the year, bringing their entourages and servants with them, beginning the new phase of city life in Japan.[4] This brought a new wave of people to the cities, easily doubling the cities in size to larger than most of their European counterpart cities of the day. The fire of Meireki (1657) required Edo to be rebuilt as most structures were built in wood; akin to the damage of the fire of London (1666); and as Christopher Wren (1632-1732) did with London, this began a modernising project in Edo, creating a new wave of cottage industry printing businesses.[3]
Shikomi-e (c.1603-1699) depicting two female dancers
Particularly involved were the theaters, Kabuki particularly. At first between 1603-1629, founded by the female shrine maiden Izumo no Okuni, Kabuki women actors (often Asobi-Onna) performed suggestive plays for the mixed class audiences in comic plays about everyday events, using highly differentiated form to today. These women engaged in kabukimono (歌舞伎者, to walk and dress 'bizarrely') between the teahouses and Yukaku (Yoshiwara was established in 1617) and often showed a nape or a wrist or two on and off stage in their illustrious kosode, now portrayed in the hand produced Shikomi-e (仕込絵, literally preparation picture, a better translation dancing or readying girl pictures) sold in the Nakamura-za, Ichimura-za and Kawarazaki-za theaters by their middle class merchant patrons.[5] Outraged at the money and the fun, the stuffy old men banned the beautiful licentious artform in 1629 and created a new disaster worse than the last; Wakashu Kabuki (young male Kabuki). Yaro-kabuki or Onnagata (men playing women actors) became a nightmare as the Oyama (male actors) only carried on the old wrist and nape traditions in the dramas and Kagemajaya (kagema or young male sex worker teahouse) of the day. Fights broke out over the affection of the actors, & the stuffy old men banned both young and old, and perhaps realising they were running out of choices for actors, lifted the ban on male actors in 1652.[6]
Client, Kagema & Asobi (1716-1735) Nishikawa Sukenobu
As I understand it, the Asobi were not dependent on men, but rather engaged in more of a 17th century style of compensated dating, particularly before the establishment of legal brothels, and after the ban on them performing in Kabuki, turned themselves over to the hedonistic world of Ukiyo, flitting between the wealthy merchants, and spending their earnings on Kagema, sake, actors and whatever tickled their fancy I suppose. They would have likely set trends, but this followed a general trend of valuing androgyny in mainstream Edo beauty standards, rather than the rigid Barbie and Ken image we may hold of the body today.
Thus began the city Kanazoshi culture (Kana books) in print media, simpler tales than the lofty Buddhist scriptures so far worthy of print and art. Tokyo Kanazoshi books contained heady tales of young beauties (usually men, a staple of Heian courtier & Buddhist monkly literature such as Zeami Motokiyo, 1363-1443 or Genji;Waley reference) engaged in hedonistic activities of Nanshoku and their beautiful, seductive, wakashu (young male samurai lover) napes being ravished by their samurai & merchant class superiors, on sale alongside the woodblock print illustrations of Kabuki dancers in streetcarts. All a bit too much for some stuffy old men in the Bakufu (tent goverment), they banned these explicit and raunchy displays of love found in the koshokuban (好色本; lewdness books) in 1661, only for them to prosper in the form of what became Shunga, popularised later in printed books like The Life of an Amorous Woman (1686) & The Great Mirror of Male Love (1687).[3][6][7][8]
Yonosuke with Telescope (1686) The Life of an Amorous Woman, Ihara Saikaku
A Kyoto theater, where a youthful actor is admired for his natural beauty (1687, Vol. 5) Ihara Saikaku
Bijin Ga
Rules of Etiquette for Women (1660, Vol 1; Dress and Table Manners) Yamada Ichirobei
Kimono Designs (1688) Yezoshiya Hachiyemon
With this Hinagata Bon (Kimono pattern books) came in 1666, with some motif books perhaps before began to popularise and cannonise the Bijin types, mostly found in the pleasure districts (particularly the gay ones) and a tad later the independent and fashionable Asobi-Onna (Play-women 遊女 or female prostitutes).[9][11] These sexual playgrounds of Ukiyo-e being created by the very same stuffy old men to hide all the grand fashions, excessive drinking, hanami watching, partyboat going with the Bijin and fun one presumes. These illustrated Bijin were woodblock dynamite among their patrons, the non-respected merchant classes. Thus Ukiyo-e (浮世絵, pictures of the floating world; floating deriving from Buddhist terminology connoting the worldly sorrow and grief of living outside of the state of nirvana) came to mean Erotic/Stylish/Gimme-a-piece-of-that.
- [They] "living only for the moment, savouring the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms, and the maple leaves, singing songs, drinking sake, and diverting oneself just in floating, unconcerned by the prospect of imminent poverty, buoyant and carefree, like a gourd carried along with the river current: this is what we call ukiyo." (Asai Ryoi; Tales of the Floating World)[10]
These Bijin and their lower class merchant lovers (money; their trade by association; was tainted in the eyes of priests) lived heady bisexual demimonde lifestyles of new money luxury and hedonism in their decadent floating world, today remaining in their black and white illustrations, which the wealthy merchants used to decorate their new homes in Edo.
Of lovers and Kosode
Into this assortium we find ourselves at home with The Kanbun Master (dates uncertain) which is regarded as the founder of Ukiyo-e today, although he/they remain a shadowy figure of the art world. Mentor or respected forefather to the artisan Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694), he is thought to be the first notable woodblock printer of these lower wordly images.
Shunga Painting; Lovers Caught Surprised (c.1665-1669) Attrib. Kambun Master
50 attributed works of his survive and are a fantastic and delectable kosode feast for the eyes. He created a number of wordly images (shunga) among other literary works such as puppet plays (Joruri) and; in a display of his priorities; works critiquing courtesans (Yujo Hyobanki) on their looks and work practices shall we say. Working in both painting and woodblock printing, he would produce works perhaps en masse in 2 or 3 colours, or painting with a wider range the first single-sheet (unbound) woodblock printed images, primarily in shunga depiction of enraptured floating lovers, discovered in the throes of monochrome kabedon-but-its-the-floor action. He seems to had a flair for the early instagram photographer phase of 'colour pops' as well, adding a bit of red or yellow here and there to his Bijins. He was primarily motivated by the Edo monochrome Fuzokuga (風俗画, genre painting) of the time, which showed everyday life in Edo.[3][10][12][13]
Dance Genre Painting (1596-1615) Kano School
Prostitute with dog, perhaps a Nanbanjin dog (c1624-1639) Kanbun 'S' Style, A Prototype Bijin, based on the Hikone Byobu
Another train of thought is that these style of drawings where made from the contemporary motifs and characters of classical Japanese literature, mixed with genre painting formats and the poses struck by Asobi in the Kannei, perhaps Genna periods (around 1615-1644). A particularly frequent motif used in these styles, are the 'S' shape silhouette found in portraits of maiko, which became precursors to the Bijin-ga of Ukiyo-e. In turn these drew upon Classical Chinese and Japanese forms of beauty, so long black hair, chignon buns, exposed shoulder or nape, wrists and a flick of a fan. It is said the drapery effect of napes derived from the upper class courtesans, the Tayuu who were out of reach of most townfolk who had to content themselves with watching their slow-gait walks along long streets like the Nanomachi road, was passed down to print culture in the 1670's from these paintings and prints. It should also be noted that this style was present before and during the rise of Kabuki. [14]
Bibliography
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijin-ga
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanban_art
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodblock_printing_in_Japan
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankin-k%C5%8Dtai
[5] Ukiyo-e: An introduction to Japanese Woodblock Prints, Kobayashi Tadashi, 1997, pp.67-68, Kodansha International
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihara_Saikaku
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunga
[9] Hinagata Bon: The Art Institute of Chicago Collection of Kimono Pattern Books, Betty Y. Siffert, 1992 p.86, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukiyo-e
[11] Shadows of Transgression: Heian and Kamakura Constructions of Prostitution, Goodwin, J., 2000, pp.327-329, Monumenta Nipponica
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanbun_Master
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_painting#Azuchi%E2%80%93Momoyama_period_(1573%E2%80%931615)
[14] http://blog.tuad.ac.jp/prizeworks/?p=145
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