Onna-E ( 女絵 | Womens pictures ) refers to the Nara, Heian and early Kamakura ( 710-1333CE ) practice of drawing women in elongated Hand scrolls, which today are regarded as feminine gender coded Art. Some of these narratives depict the lives of women, their extra diaries, or the literature they wrote. The Onna-E style derives from how mostly Heian women represented themselves and others as a performed self in these scrolls, drawing from their lives indoors at their and the imperial abodes. Whilst a limited number of women could read Kanji, they also used their knowledge of Chinese culture to create and inspire their own culture; the first truly Wamono aesthetics; and it was with these preconditions that Onna-E became established in the Japanese art scene alongside Yamato-E and Oshi-E.
Onna E
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Han Dynasty
The Chinese influences of the Yamato-E style cover the vast tropes and stylistic motifs which run through a lot of Japanese Emakimono. This began in the Han Dynasty when artists began to depict the life around them, a sort of feudal golden age for mankind at the time, not just China. As Han society rulers deemed it useful to have visuals for many different functions, they began to commission more of this thing the kids in those days were calling 'Art'. This resulted in a broad acceptance and discussion of what art was, how it should be done and who should do it. In the end a shocking result was reached. Rich people could do it! (Well I NEVER!) The aristocracy got together and decided it was a pursuit of the Han Scholar, due to its percieved role in Confucian philosophy as a tool for ancestor worship. Hence all the wonderful tomb murals left over.
With all these new societal changes, Art began to become 'Chinese Art'. Han Art distinctly began to change around the 1st century CE from flat or 2D perspective, to reflect a more Qiyun Shendong (spirit resonated) type of art.
This took Han Art from painting Horses like the ones above, which enabled a more true to life realism in Art. These Isometric developments extended to include all perspective and were developed between 60CE-100CE to reflect a philosophical bent about how realistic perspective could and should be in Art. It was decided to go with Isometric, after it was deemed that it was better to allow the imagination to be engaged and tested about depth, light and height, something which is not as easy to do in Euclidian perspective drawing. This is where the Fukunuki Yatai device comes from.[4]
Six Dynasties
These turn of the figure came to a head in during the late Six Dynasty (220-589) period in Eastern China. These fancy painters drew on earlier cues from women's poetry and foreign cultures such as Uzbekistan, Persia and India (Horses and Religion). This great melting pot of culture, war and writing milieu adopted more expressive movement from dance, seen in their Bodhisattva statues which are bloody hilarious. Beauty began to espouse these new forms of beauty based on depicting the 'aesthetic elegance' of Six Dynasty love poetry written by Pining court ladies.
Acceptable figures to portray as beautiful, were the immortal nymphs of Chinese legends, over this period (300-550AD) the clothes of these figures began to become more fitted and showed off the wearers body. Women of the era were seen through a form of the patriarchal lense in a Confucian prism however, and whilst admired, their agency was subjective at best in this worldview.[3]
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Tang Dynasty
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In other words, the scholars wanted an excuse to let their libidos loose. Think Victorian (1837-1901) men drawing nudes and saying it was 'In Gods Image'. This loosening of public morals, created the way for the expressing of previously hidden sexual desire and openness about the whole charade down the centuries. The Tang Dynasty (618-907CE) was a golden period for the arts in China which enjoyed cleavage, fancy hairdoes money, birds, painting and birds. Their supermodels of the day therefore were imperial consorts such as Yang Guifei ( 楊玉環 | 719-756CE) who was murdered after the Emperors Guards blamed her for having too much power in the imperial system around the time squabbling men such An Lushan (703-757) were starting rebellions (very Lucretia c.490-510CE). These squabbles saw an end to the reign of the Tang Dynasty in the 900s.
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The style we refer to as Onna E originates in the Heian appreciation of the Imperial Chinese Tang Arts which were considered by much of Eastern Asia as the height of Artistic expression. Much like their later Qiyun Shengdong (spirit resonance) artist friend Iwasa Matabei, Tang Art (618-907 CE) was highly regarded as the penultimate art of its day. These:-
'diagonal parallel lines of recession, figures that are large in scale and provide the focus of the attention, themes based on human relationships and activities, [...] static [...] realism, broadly painted and brightly coloured. [With an] oblique downward looking vantage point so characteristic of Emaki [... having] become well established in Chinese painting by the Tang period.'[1]
Onna Emakimono originated in the Heian Period when the distinction between Wamono and Kara-mono (Japanese and Chinese things) was still very fresh. These distinctions and tales were what inspired Japanese court ladies to go out and make their own cultures. Women like Ise no Miyasudokoro ( 875-938CE ), Sei Shonagon ( 966-1017CE ), Akazome Emon ( 954-1947CE ) and Murasaki Shikibu ( fl.1000-1012 ) wrote Waka, Nikkei (Diaries) and the first novel.
Their aesthetic lives inspired by Six Dynasty women writers such as the bisexual Shangguan Wan'er (664-710) and instruction by Ban Zhao ( 25-117CE ) also show how they greatly admired and understood these social and cultural conventions from foreign countries, mostly China. This also comes from a time when the Chinese imperial court was de facto ruled by women, from Wu Zetian in 665 until Empress Zhang in 762. Onna-E was a culmination of Imperial court noblewomen who based on their penchant for writing literature, reading Classical Chinese and Wamono texts, created the basis for Wamono culture, pulling away from Chinese sources as was the Manly Sumi-E thing to do, and to create work tempered by Yamato-jin sensibilities. Thus Yamato-E, Otogizoshi and the Japanese school of art was born. They created aesthetic when:
Heian court ladies layered their Hitoe (single layer Kimono) into 12 and this process known as Kasane-no-irome (襲の色目|coloured layering) which adhered to the Chinese calendar of 72 seasons became fashionable as indoor wear for women, like Teagowns in the Victorian age [...]. By [1000 CE], these [domestic decorative] issues were overcome and new application techniques, embroidery and so on were used to decorate and strengthen fabrics, such as Sashiko stitches. Hakame were also first worn by women as an undivided base layer of their kimono, becoming a culotte divided type by the 10th century worn.[2]
These aesthetic sensibilities still harkened back to Chinese women and cultures as examples, but these distinctly Wamono versus Karamono sensibilities expressed a uniquely Wa-feeling to them, as they were created not for 300-400 year old concubines, but their own polyamorous society of dreamlike, ritualistic sensibilities. Devices like the Hikimie Kagabana ( Heian faces ) essentially are the origin of the Faceless trope to allow readers to paste their own emotions and feelings onto the character to better relate. In this sense, Heian women basically came up with self inserts and the manga of their day. Would you like to be judged by someone in 3070 who thinks all the character in Bridget Jones Diary were too visually appealing? During the Kamakura period, their Wamono was co-opted to mean the expressive Onna-E. During the 17th century, male art historians did a patriarchy and this is how we have the term 'Woman pictures', a bit like 'Lady Doctor/Cyclist'.
Conclusion
Isometric perspective was kept as Fukinuki Yatai, folklore was implemented to some degree in their tales and the figures represented in these Emakimono were made to suit their audiences. Female artists and writers based their pursuits of aesthetic sensibility on their female Chinese predecessors and created the basis for Japanese picture scrolls and a previously nonexistent Japanese cultural aesthetic sensibility, refining the expression of character and composition development during their time in provincial and bureaucratic seclusion or religious isolation, creating the basis for Japanese Art, something their male counterparts who used China as a foil for masculinity, did not endeavour to pursue.
[1] Narrative Picture Scrolls, Elizabeth Ten-Grotenhuis, 1973, pp.16
[2] See Patterns #3
[3] See Bijin #7
[4] https://deheunit17.wordpress.com/2016/10/25/perspective-in-chinese-painting-research-against-western-styles/
Essay Abstracts
#1 Renee Vivien (1877 - 1909) --- Born Pauline Tarn, was an English lesbian poet. She wrote in French and perhaps English. She took up the style of the Symbolists and Parnassinism and was well known during the era of the Belle Epoque (the Beautiful Age) for producing Sapphic verse and living as an open quasi butch lesbian poet; her verse derived from the ancient poet Sapphos, also famed for her love of women.
# 2 Birth of the Kimonope --- Here I shall introduce the notion of the Kimonope, that is as a garment attached to the social construct of the 'Geisha' in North America. Kimonopes being Orientalized clothing, or 'negatively affiliated or exoticized ethnic dress' which lead to the perceived notion of the Kimono and Geiko as simultaneously both high and low culture to American culture makers, such as film, television, media, writers and some academics. An example of Kimonope are the tacky Halloween costumes you may find at the Dollar store.
#3 The Legacy of the MacArthur Dynasty on KTC & The Problem with the 'Traditional Garment' Argument --- The problem with arguing that the Kimono is a 'Traditional ethnic Garment' is that that assertion is in itself, arguably Ethnocentrism, which to clarify is the imposition of, in this case, American values onto Japanese cultural values, belaying the 3 pronged pitchfork of idiocy.
#4 Divine --- Government name Harris Glenn Milstead (1945-1988) was the infamous North American Queen & Drag artist. Specifically, Divine was known for being a character actor, part of her act is well-known for its eccentricity. My personal exposure to Drag lite was Pantomine Grand Dames as a kid, and later when my friends made me watch RuPaul in art classes, so to me this is nothing new, the over the top, the glitter, the upstaging is all part and parcel.
#5 Dori-Style or 21st century Kimono Fashion --- The Dori-Kimono style. Something which I just made up because in going over notes for the first 20 years of 21st century section of Kimono history, I noticed a lack of a clear catchall term for what was happening in Japan at the time, at least in English descriptions of the time. I use the term Dori as I do not want to coin an unrelated term to the topic, but I also am reticent to claim all of Street style as 'Tori' either, whilst a large number of streets upon which the subculture originates in all use the suffix 'dori' (the bottom of Takeshita-dori for example), thence Dori-style.
#6 The Tea Gown --- This essay will cover the aspects of how 19th century Japanese import textiles to Western countries were used and repurposed, as well what their desirability tells us about how Japanese design was regarded and the image which these people held of Japan through the Western lense and consciousness. This follows the progression of how Kimono can be used in the West from the undress of the 1860s, adapting silk bolts in the 1870s to high fashion western daywear, to the 1880s aesthetic movement and 1890 wholesale adoption in the Victorian age to being used prominently by society hostesses as tea gowns by the Edwardian period, and the subsequent change in Japanese export culture which we see in extant textile collections of Japanese textile in Western dresses of the periods.
#7 Kimono and the Pre-Raphaelite Painters --- This essay will cover the aspects of Kimono in the Portraiture of the Pre-Raphaelites. The Pre-Raphaelites were a group of British artists and writers active during the late Victorian period. Unlike the Royal Academy artists, this circle of painters operated outside of the established comfortable boundaries of the expected white, cisgender middle class audience of the Victorian age. The movement is notable for its inclusion and encouragement of women, and in portraying and engaging non-conventional beauty and beauties as figures from the Classical World alongside Religious, Mythological and Folklore Heroines into Victorian 'Femme Fatales'.
#8 Jokyo/Genroku Kimono Textile Culture and the new role of the Komin --- This essay will return back to GKTC (Genroku Kimono Textile Culture ; 1688-1704) and JoKTC (Jokyo K.T.C. 1684-1688) and the new role of the Komin (Artist caste) in GKTC. JoKTC is notable for being the lead up to GKTC, JoKTC being characterised by its transitory nature in comparison to GKTC, which was far more bold in its relations to what Kosode could and should be. Komin entered the picture at this juncture, and I shall elaborate a little more here than in other posts about why that was. GKTC is notable for its elaborate, perhaps gaudy and innovative Kosode design features, whilst JoKTC more so for the enabling factors of the time, as a sort of incubatory GKTC.
#9 Tagasode Byobu - This essay will explore the art motif known in Japanese art as Tagasode Byobu ( Whose sleeves Screen) This motif is a recurring art form which was particularly popular during the Azuchi-Momoyama era ( 1568-1600 ) as a representation of the ways in which Buddhist sensibilities met with the fast changing events of the end of the Sengoku Jidai (1467-1615) and as an extension of the habit of wealthy women from military families came to own and store a large number of Kimono. Prior to this, Kin Byobu ( Golden Screens) for the most part depicted nature like Sesshuu Touyou (1420-1506) after Chinese Cha'an painter Muxi ( c.1210-1269 ) or 'flower-and-bird' scenes like those of Kano Eitoku (1543-1590), rather than humans or human paraphernalia as an extension of the Zen painting school of thought about materialism.
#10 Cultural Acculturation --- The topic of our essay is on the nature of Cultural Exchange in KTC which will be an ongoing mini-series throughout 2022. This covers the 1000CE - 1500 period in Japanese History.
#11 Cultural Appropriation --- The topic of our essay is on the nature of Cultural Appropriation which will be an ongoing mini-series throughout 2022.
#12 Cultural Acculturation --- The topic of our essay is on the nature of Cultural Acculturation which will be an ongoing mini-series throughout 2022. This covers the Asuka (Hakuho), Nara (Tempyo), and Heian periods (500CE-1000CE) in Japanese History.
#13 Asai Ryoi --- This essay will explore the legacy of Asai Ryoi on KTC. Who was Asai Ryoi you may ask? Only one of the most important writers for the Ukiyo genre. Asai Ryoi ( act. 1661-1691 ) was a prolific Ukiyo-zoshi ( Books of the floating world ) or Kana-zoshi ( Heimin Japanese Books ) writer. His leading 1661 publication, lambasted and satirized Buddhism and Samurai culture of restraint in favour of the Chonin lifestyle of worldy excess.
#14 Edith Craig --- This is a post regarding the early adoption and promulgation of the Kimono and Japanese aesthetics in the life of the wonderful Edith Craig (1869-1947), daughter of the famous actress Ellen Terry (1847-1928) and Edward William Godwin (1833-1886). Edith was also known as 'Edy'.
#15 European Banyans --- This essay will explore the European garment known as a Banyan, which originated as a European reaction to Kimono in the 17th century, popular until the end of the 18th century. The word Banyan originates from Arabic ( Banyaan), Portuguese (Banian), Tamil ( Vaaniyan ) and Gujarati ( Vaaniyo ) loanwords meaning 'Merchant'. Alternative versions saw the item fitted with buttons and ribbons to attach the two front sides together. The Banyan was worn by all genders and was particularly regarded in its first iterations as a gentlemanly or intellectual garment worn with a cap to cover the lack of a periwig, and later adopted by women and greatly influenced how British womens garments were designed with preference for comfort in removal of panniers whilst maintaining luxurious, modest 18th century fashions (see Robe a la Anglaise).
#16 Miss Universe and Kimonope --- This essay will explore how Beauty Pageants, principally Miss Universe, has engaged with KTC. While there may be real Kimono worn by Japanese and Japanese adjacent contestants in the 'National Costume' category, I will be focusing on the Kimonope worn by contestants. The idea of Kimono as a 'national costume' sparks interesting conversations on what 'national costumes' are, their target audiences, and how we form ideas about these things to begin with.
#17 Onna-E --- Womens pictures refers to the Nara, Heian and early Kamakura ( 710-1333CE ) practice of drawing women in elongated Hand scrolls, which today are regarded as feminine gender coded Art. Some of these narratives depict the lives of women, their extra diaries, or the literature they wrote. The Onna-E style derives from how mostly Heian women represented themselves and others as a performed self in these scrolls, drawing from their lives indoors at their and the imperial abodes. Whilst a limited number of women could read Kanji, they also used their knowledge of Chinese culture to create and inspire their own culture; the first truly Wamono aesthetics; and it was with these preconditions that Onna-E became established in the Japanese art scene alongside Yamato-E and Oshi-E.
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