西川 祐信 | Nishikawa Sukenobu | 1671-1750 | Bijin #13

Nishikawa Sukenobu (active 1690/1700-1750) was a Ukiyo-E designer of illustrations for books who is mostly known for his at the time, unique, depictions of women. His repuatation in posterity is his Appreciating 100 Women (1723) which illustrated 100 different types of women in Edo period society. He was rather unusal for his time as he was based in Kyoto, away from the epicentre of popular Ukiyo-E, Edo. He was said to have been inspired by the Bijinga of Hishikawa Moronobu, who died when Nishikawa was 23.[1][2] The Nishikawa school was begun by Sukenobu sometime in the 18th century.[4]

Nishikawa grew up in the times where conservative depictions of the human figure were giving way in popular culture to lascivious depictions of beautiful people doing beautiful things, otherwise Abuna-e and the like. Indeed, keeping in mind high art depictions of worldly bodies were Matabei's experimental portrait in 1650, perhaps inspired by the Kano schools fascination with the exotic beginning in the 1590s, the outcome by the 1680s of the accepatability of 'Urban activities' (having coetus) being shown in books was quite a leap. All male Kabuki, Chonin-Komin relationship and Sumptuary laws defined whatever education Nishikawa may have recieved.[3] This primary education was most likely with Tosa Mitsusuke (1675-1710) & Kano Eino (1631-1697) between 1680-1700.[4]

Sukenobu appears to have being considered a skilled artisan who operated just beyond the boundaries of the Emperors art court due to his popularity in Osaka and Kyoto. His style of melding, fusing and blurring styles with Ukiyo-E highlights and his connections to the court allowed to run a successful venture in painting and designing illustrated Ukiyo-e novels (Ehon Komin) by 1699. Other fun caveats are that he also produced Hinagata-Bon, and Shunga by 1711 in a softer or more refined nature than preious raunchier works.[3]

Bijin and the clock (c1708, PD) Nishikawa Sukenobu

Nishikawas Remix Bijin

The Nishikawa Bijin though can be said to follow quite a number of conventional attribution to its predecessor from the Tosa school such as small appendages, facial features and composition. What seems to be new from my understanding here is that of the focus of the image on the bodily form than on other items in the image. Sukenobus backgrounds are rather sparse and uncomplicated in their details, and seem to take after the backgrounds of Bijinga Kakemono which more often omit than include details. It is this melding of popular (Chonin), high (Court or Tosa), and fine art (Komin or Kano) features which make a Nishikawa picture.[3]

Nishikawas Bijin were particularly popular due to their many postures and clearly are something Nishikawa practiced a lot of, and this is reflected in his legacy around the Osaka-Kyoto area as many of his poses were copied for many years.[3] One such Artist who he left an impression on, being Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770) no less.[2]

The Bijin depicted above follows the regular conventions of the Yamato-E style, but again, fuses the figures in a new way. Small hands and feets for example are recognisably still in favour with Sukenobu at this juncture, but he also uses a more slender and elongated figure than was totally in fashion for the early 18th century. The wash of colours have the application of a woodcut block draftsmans hand, but the Bijin clearly follows conventional Kosode motifs for a Yuujo. What this image is essentially saying, is that by this time (around 1720) the Chonin had become familiar and comfortable with the fleshy body being displayed in art, unlike a majority of court art which still focused on Chinese and Buddhist themes.

Perhaps the popularity of Nishikawa was his use of colour, which showed the touch of an artist, rather than that of a woodcutter in his handling of the application of bold pallettes for the time. In the Western sense of the word, he can thought of as the Victorians did of Illustrators in the Golden Age of Illustration (1875-1930), that is as an illustrator first than painter first. Nishikawas Bijinga with brash reds, understanding of fabric draping across the body, and technology like European clocks all spoke to the more widespread acceptance of the exotic which the Kano school first adopted, and which GKTC reflected as part of townspeople culture.

Conclusion

In context, we see that Nishikawa was popular due to the makeup of Japanese society at the time, in the developing Komin-Chonin relationship as Merchants changed with their wallets the what the new taste for fashionable art could be between 1675-1725. Nishikawas ability to blend components such as Draped fabrics, a focus on the flesh and his background in Yamato-E clearly appealed as an exciting new 'Japanese' take of the exotic into the mundane. Nishikawa brought a refined painters brush to more risque elements of Chonin culture, making the brashness more respectable and closer to what the elites may have thought of as an acceptable Japanese aesthetic, buying into the Iki inclination of this time so to speak. Nishikawa brought together, as did Matabei in the 1640s, the world of High and Lowbrow art and their affiliated artforms and thus the Bijin-ga genre became an acceptable artform rathern than just what the elites may have thought of as the 18th century version of Waifu compilations on someones harddrive today.

Bibliography

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishikawa_Sukenobu

[2]  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nishikawa-Sukenobu

[3] https://www.viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/ukiyoe/sukenobu.html

[4] https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG6262

Bijin Series Timeline

11th century BCE

- The Ruqun becomes a formal garment in China (1000 BCE) [Coming Soon]

8th century BCE

- Chinese clothing becomes highly hierarchical (771 BCE) [Coming Soon]

0000 Current Era

7th century

Asuka Bijin (from 600) [Coming Soon]

8th century

- Introduction of Chinese Tang Dynasty clothing (710)

- Sumizuri-e (710)

- Classical Chinese Art ; Zhou Fang (active 766-805) ; Qiyun Bijin

- Emakimono Golden Age (799-1400)

15th century 

- Fuzokuga Painting schools; Kano (1450-1868) and Tosa (1330-1690) 

- Machi- Eshi painters; 1336-1650? [Coming Soon] 

16 century 

- Nanbanjin Art (1550-1630) 

- Wamono style begins under Chanoyu teachings (c1550-1580)

- Byobu Screens (1580-1670)

 - End of Sengoku Jidai brings Stabilisation policy (1590-1615)  

17th century  

- Land to Currency based Economy Shift (1601-1655)

- Early Kabuki Culture (1603-1673) ; Yakusha-e or Actor Prints

- Sumptuary legislation in reaction to the wealth of the merchant classes (1604-1685) 

- Regulation of export and imports of foreign trade in silk and cotton (1615-1685)  

Iwasa Matabei (active 1617-1650) ; Yamato-e Bijin  

The Hikone Screen (c.1624-1644) [Coming Soon]

- Sankin-Kotai (1635-1642) creates mass Urbanisation  

- Popular culture and print media production moves from Kyoto to Edo (1635-1650); Kiyohara Yukinobu (1650-1682) ; Manji Classical Beauty

- Shikomi-e (1650-1670) and Kakemono-e which promote Androgynous Beauties;

 Iwasa Katsushige (active 1650-1673) ; Kojin Bijin

- Mass Urbanisation instigates the rise of Chonin Cottage Industry Printing (1660-1690) ; rise of the Kabunakama Guilds and decline of the Samurai

- Kanazoshi Books (1660-1700); Koshokubon Genre (1659?-1661)

- Shunga (1660-1722); Abuna-e

Kanbun Master/School (active during 1661-1673) ; Maiko Bijin 

- Hinagata Bon (1666 - 1850) 

- Ukiyo Monogatari is published by Asai Ryoi (1666) 

Yoshida Hanbei (active 1664-1689) ; Toned-Down Bijin

- Asobi/Suijin Dress Manuals (1660-1700)

- Ukiyo-e Art (1670-1900)

Hishikawa Moronobu (active 1672-1694) ; Wakashu Bijin

- Early Bijin-ga begin to appear as Kakemono (c.1672)  

- Rise of the Komin-Chonin Relationship (1675-1725)

- The transit point from Kosode to modern Kimono (1680); Furisode, Wider Obi 

- The Genroku Osaka Bijin (1680 - 1700) ; Yuezen Hiinakata

Sugimura Jihei (active 1681-1703) ; Technicolour Bijin 

- The Amorous Tales are published by Ihara Saikaku (1682-1687)

Hishikawa Morofusa (active 1684-1704) [Coming Soon]

- The Beginning of the Genroku Era (1688-1704)

- The rise of the Komin and Yuujo as mainstream popular culture (1688-1880) 

- The consolidation of the Bijinga genre as mainstream pop culture 

- The rise of the Torii school (1688-1799) 

- Tan-E (1688-1710)   

Miyazaki Yuzen (active 1688-1736) ; Genroku Komin and Wamono Bijin 

Torii Kiyonobu (active 1688 - 1729) : Commercial Bijin

Furuyama Moromasa (active 1695-1748)

18th century

Nishikawa Sukenobu (active 1700-1750) [Coming Soon]

Kaigetsudo Ando (active 1700-1736) ; Broadstroke Bijin

Okumura Masanobu (active 1701-1764)

Kaigetsudo Doshin (active 1704-1716) [Coming Soon]

Baioken Eishun (active 1710-1755) [Coming Soon]

Kaigetsudo Anchi (active 1714-1716) [Coming Soon]

1717 Kyoho Reforms

Miyagawa Choshun (active 1718-1753) [Coming Soon]

Miyagawa Issho (active 1718-1780) [Coming Soon]

Nishimura Shigenaga (active 1719-1756) [Coming Soon]

Matsuno Chikanobu (active 1720-1729) [Coming Soon]

- Beni-E (1720-1743)

Torii Kiyonobu II (active 1725-1760) [Coming Soon]

- Uki-E (1735-1760)

Kawamata Tsuneyuki (active 1736-1744) [Coming Soon]

Kitao Shigemasa (1739-1820)

Miyagawa Shunsui (active from 1740-1769) [Coming Soon]

Benizuri-E (1744-1760)

Ishikawa Toyonobu (active 1745-1785) [Coming Soon]

Tsukioka Settei (active 1753-1787) [Coming Soon]

Torii Kiyonaga (active 1756-1787) [Coming Soon]

Shunsho Katsukawa (active 1760-1793) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Toyoharu (active 1763-1814) [Coming Soon]

Suzuki Harunobu (active 1764-1770) [Coming Soon]

- Nishiki-E (1765-1850)

Torii Kiyonaga (active 1765-1815) [Coming Soon]

Kitao Shigemasa (active 1765-1820) [Coming Soon]

Maruyama Okyo (active 1766-1795) [Coming Soon]

Kitagawa Utamaro (active 1770-1806) [Coming Soon]

Kubo Shunman (active 1774-1820) [Coming Soon]

Tsutaya Juzaburo (active 1774-1797) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Kunimasa (active from 1780-1810) [Coming Soon]

Tanehiko Takitei (active 1783-1842) [Coming Soon]

Katsukawa Shuncho (active 1783-1795) [Coming Soon]

Choubunsai Eishi (active 1784-1829) [Coming Soon]

Eishosai Choki (active 1786-1808) [Coming Soon]

Rekisentei Eiri (active 1789-1801) [Coming Soon] [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ukiyo-e_paintings#/media/File:Rekisentei_Eiri_-_'800),_Beauty_in_a_White_Kimono',_c._1800.jpg]

Chokosai Eisho (active 1792-1799) [Coming Soon]

Kunimaru Utagawa (active 1794-1829) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Toyokuni II (active 1794 - 1835) [Coming Soon]

Ryūryūkyo Shinsai (active 1799-1823) [Coming Soon]

19th century

Teisai Hokuba (active 1800-1844) [Coming Soon]

Totoya Hokkei (active 1800-1850) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Kunisada Toyokuni III (active 1800-1865) [Coming Soon]

Urakusai Nagahide (active from 1804) [Coming Soon]

Kitagawa Tsukimaro (active 1804 - 1836)

Kikukawa Eizan (active 1806-1867) [Coming Soon]

Keisai Eisen (active 1808-1848) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (active 1810-1861) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Hiroshige (active 1811-1858) [Coming Soon]

Yanagawa Shigenobu (active 1818-1832) [Coming Soon]

Utagawa Kunisada II (active 1844-1880) [Coming Soon]

Toyohara Kunichika (active 1847-1900) [Coming Soon]

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (active 1850-1892) [Coming Soon]

Toyohara Chikanobu (active 1875-1912) [Coming Soon]

Kiyokata Kaburaki (active 1891-1972) [Coming Soon]

Goyo Hashiguchi (active 1899-1921) [Coming Soon]

20th century

Yumeji Takehisa (active 1905-1934) [Coming Soon]

Torii Kotondo (active 1915-1976) [Coming Soon]

Yamakawa Shūhō (active 1927-1944) [Coming Soon]

Social Links

One stop Link shop: https://linktr.ee/Kaguyaschest

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KaguyasChest?ref=seller-platform-mcnav or https://www.instagram.com/kaguyaschest/ or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5APstTPbC9IExwar3ViTZw https://www.pinterest.co.uk/LuckyMangaka/hrh-kit-of-the-suke/ 

Also might it be added whoever decided in the last week to put my blog through plagiarism dot commercial, please see Section 107 of the Copyright Act in the US, fair dealing in Section 29 of the Copyright Act of Canada (1921-1997) and Copyright Modernization Act (2012), https://www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright in the UK and keeping in mind that this blog is purely non-commercial and therefore falls under these pieces of legislation. Japanese related content such as the image above is taken from Wikimedia Commons and therefore fall under the jurisdiction of their original posters to place them into a Creative Commons framework (RIPublic Domain Aaron Schwartz, may the mouse repent and long live the rat). Most of these works, as above, have entered the Public Domain. If you wish to remove any of your copyrighted material, please feel free to contact me with the knowledge I reserve the right to use some works under fair use and for non-commercial purposes. If this is in regards to text passages, these can be omitted quite easily and I will very happily take anything from 1925 on down upon request, within a reasonable timeframe. If you are a Japanese copyright owner, please note your copyright ownership rights are for works in which thoughts or sentiments are expressed in a creative way, and which falls within the literary, scientific, artistic or musical domain. Honestly, work not being able to be regarded as public domain, instead the property of corporate persons (companies) is highly damaging to the moral and ethic fabric of society and detrimental to the advancement of our knowledge, research and studying of the materials we have. Please remember that plagiarism is yes, stuffed up, but at the same time, this blog is not a commodity, it is for research and educational purposes only. It is something I enjoy learning and sharing and I do not believe that everything should be locked away behind a paywall simply so that ALADDIN can be satisfied. If you do not understand what I am sourcing from, the nature of the allowances or anything else you feel, all of my contact info is on every blog post, and also, please be creative commons literate and aware. 

Making a Haori and a rant about the beauty of Transitioning

Good Sunday good folk! 

I am currently taking a break as quite a lot has happened recently which I am still waiting to pass for the time being. So I decided to finish a project that has sat in my project box for a while and make a haori from deadstock fabric. Have you seen how nice this deadstock fabric is though!?

 

Taken by myself (2022) Kaguyas Chest

The sleeves are 75 finished, I'm still trying to get the configuration right with the rest of my torso, which is proving a bit of a pain given that all I have leftover is around 30cm of the right fabric. For anyone interested this took 2 old dresses to make  and looks almost more of a Dochugi length than a Haori, but the fabric is really adorable so it's fine.

Im planning to embroider the back, but Im still looking for the right motifs. They'll be drawn from the history of British and Japanese inter-cultural history. I think theyll include:

• Chalkboard with Poole Gakuin written in English
• Frank Morley Fletcher Painting
• Hiking stick
• Yokohama Bluff
• A Donation Pot
• Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation (1894)
• Kimono Cabinet (1901)
• Sadayakkos Hamlet flower crown (1903)
• Noh mask
• Invitation to Lady Arnolds Afternoon Tea
• A cat
• Japan in Pictures (1904)
• Kwaidan Cover Art (1904)
• Cover of the  Daehan Maeil Sinbo (1904)
• A Wedding Ring
• Citron fruit
• Ama and Jewel Tsuba from Japanese Treasure Tales (1906)
• A collection of books in a series
• A brown Mingei pot
• A crane
• A letter addressed to Ozaki
• An illustrators pen
• Sculptors carving tools
• A newspaper
• Budokwai Logo
• Jujitsu uniform
• An Umbrella
• A paper parasol
• A watercolour by Kokki Miyake
• Prints by Kamisaka Sekka
• Beginning of Lady Reading (1906) by Ishibashi Kazunori
• A love letter to Hart-Synnot (1906)
• Yoshio Markino print (1907)
• Renee Viviens hat
• 2cnd place ribbon for the Surrey Brooklands motor race (1907)
• Drooping Wisteria
• Sansoms rounded glasses
• Aesthetic Hand fan
• Ticker tape machine
• Japan British Exhibition Postcard (1910)
• Edith Margaret Garruds Hat from the Sketch (1910)
• Red Bridges
• Most Honourable Order of the Bath medallion
• Stone lantern
• Kakemono
• Bamboo garden feature
• Haikara-san
• Taihaku blossom
• Fossils
• Tomimoto Kenkichi pottery
• Bernard Leach pottery
• Clotted cream knife
• Ryuson Chuzo Matsuyama print
• Pottery shard from the Jomon period with label 'to Scotland'
• Butterflies from China, Japan Corea (1912)
• Wilson Kabu and Kamidana
• Titanic Letterhead (1914)
• A spoiled Buddha (1919)
• Blue Hakama
• Kawai Kanjiro pottery
• Thomas Baty's wig
• Charles William Bartlett print
• Male ballet uniform
• Moga
• 73 Harcourt Terraces Conservatory
• Sempills Plane
• A bottle of Nikka Whisky 
• Sen Yans Devotion (1924)
• Scotch JMT-3100
• An Omelette on a book
• Design plans for the Yamato (1937)
• Upturned hat and a sign reading 'Prime Minister’s son – penniless'

Cerasus Lannesiana 'Taihaku' Ingram (2011, CC3.0) Arashiyama

Transitory Beauty Rant 

These will follow the Heian practice (if I recall correctly) of omitting human figures due to the aesthetic sensibilities of Japanese Buddhism. The train of though runs that to live as a Buddha, we must end our relation with Dukkha. And to end dukkha, the spiritual practitioner must relinquish their desires related to Dukkha. Their fleshy meat vessels known as bodies had to be cleansed so to speak of the mortal desire for vanity and covetousness, as these were material pursuits which was taught in Buddism to bring longterm pain, or Dukkha as these things did not allow the practicer to find the non-self. Thus the reduction of coveting and vanity or consumerism would help to end Dukkha and to attain nirvana. This of course comes from Mujyou, the knowledge that all things will disintegrate eventually. It was the acceptance of this fact and how to respond aesthetically which 'cultivated' aesthetics spent and spend their time pondering over.

This need to sever Dukkha and cultivate beauty developed into part of Mono-no-aware, which led to the popularization of the omittance of the human body, as the human body was full of dukkha, and nobody wants to wear Dukkha, so Dukkha related things were a no-no. This notion of worldly and unworldly beauty, in the pursuit of the realisation of ones part in nature as a non-self, is why Kimono often have very few humans on them. Lady Ise and pals had an appreciation that the fleshy meat vessel is finite, and that cultivated beauty is to be found in the passage of time, and thus you end up with motifs of objects from stories; ie Genji-Mon[1]; rather than reminders of Dukkha. Wholesome tales of non-self and relinquishing Dukka in other words. You may also want to see the post on how it became acceptable for the development of the Bijin figure. 

These two academic theories (on mortality and the pursuit of beauty) came about from the Japanese reaction to the role the human form played in Buddhist art and through Buddhist frameworks. It works under Mono-no-aware in the understanding of the relation of the body to its place as and in nature. In the Heian era, it was said the body must strive to have control over worldly desires for nirvana attainment, and by the Edo period that the body was part of life anyway and thus its pursuit as a beautiful aesthetic was simply another work towards understanding acceptance of the human condition. 

TLDR: Essentially, it is the transformative understanding of how the body fits into the natural world and how non-self is attained. It is the use of objects to draw attention to the emotion of these tales which the Heian mono-no-aware evokes which I rather more appreciate than the later Edo justification of Ukiyo-E, which whilst I get is part of the human condition is a bit of a copout for me considering it didnt even come close to Rationalist thinking as in the Occident that the Body was simply divine or almighty anyway and lowering beauty to simply base desires of lust and gluttony. Which yes there are many kinds of romantic and erotic love, but it never really leads to an exploration of platonic vs erotic vs aromanticism or any other form which love takes, and so for me is a rather boring academic framework. Even the Greeks and Romans the stuffy old men had greater vocabularies than just 'I like to watch patriarchy unfold on LGBTQIA narratives', looking at Ihara Saikaku here as well. Rant completamented.

Bibliography

[1] See patterns #3

[2] Are some of these references exceptionally vague and only a nod to if you know you know. Yep. 445 years. 169 years. Just a small difference of 276 years Mr Long. 100 years for Mr Loti.

Social Links:

Linktree (One click to all and extended Links): https://linktr.ee/Kaguyaschest

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KaguyasChest?ref=seller-platform-mcnav or https://www.instagram.com/kaguyaschest/ or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5APstTPbC9IExwar3ViTZw https://www.pinterest.co.uk/LuckyMangaka/hrh-kit-of-the-suke/