浅井 了意 | Asai Ryoi | 1612-1691 | Essay #13

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 ( active 1661-1691 | 浅井 了意 ) was a prolific Ukiyo-zoshi ( Books of the floating world | 浮世草子 )  or Kana-zoshi  ( Heimin Japanese Books | 仮名草子 ) writer.[1] His leading 1661 publication, lambasted and satirized Buddhism and Samurai culture of restraint in favour of the Chonin lifestyle of worldy excess.[1]

Ukiyo

Kanazoshi celebrated contemporary urban life. It was Ryoi's Ukiyo Monogatari ( Tales of the Floating World | 浮世物語 | 1661 ) which saw Buddhism infused using the Kanazoshi genre. The writing term Ukiyo, ( Transitory World | 浮世 ) describes the homophone allusion to the Buddhist Ukiyo ( The Sorrow filled World | 憂き世 ) which describes what Buddhist call Dukkha ( Suffering ) under Impernance ( Mujyou | 無常 ) due to the ongoing nature of change in human lives.[2] This was essentially a tongue-in-cheek way of pointing out how in this transitory world of suffering due to change in human lives, and therefore you should live a decadent lifestyle to cope with all of the Dukkha. Buddhists would say otherwise though, as they generally lived as Ascetics, not as Decadents.[1] 

Ukiyo Zoshi

The Ukiyo-Zoshi genre came about due to Ryois 1661 Monogatari which questioned the real value between leading an ascetic lead and decadent lifestyle and as to how best understand the meaning of the mortal and immortal realm of what Buddhism termed the ultimate goal of reaching the Pure Land or Buddha-field ( Jyoudo | 浄土 ).[3] It is important to understand the man, because it was this framework which launched this genre, Japans first major popular genre of literature.[4]

This framework was a lauded response to the major problems faced by Japanese society at the time. After the tumultuous period of civil war which Japan had just left, the Japanese found themselves in a new era of peace. As Sankin Kotai had moved the Heimin, created the Chonin, and uprooted the Samurai, Japanese society had a more stable economy and thus more leverage as a society for great numbers of people to have a greater quality of life. As such, decadence became more prevalent. It was in this newly peaceful world that values began to brought into the spotlight and new ethics and morals brought by emigrant Heimin; and more available to us, Chonin; who decided which of these where more important than others.

As such, Ukiyo-Monogatari reflects this new impetus by a form of archival liberation[5] of the Buddhist teachings. Ryoi attempts to reflect on what would later be codified as the Mono-no-aware theme which reflects on the beauty found in the passing of time and its transitory nature. His main character even through his decadent lifestyle, still finds Enlightenment by the end of the tale. It was this which gave the impetus for kindling the 'rightness' we can say, of the Chonin in their ways and wiles as being as valid as the ascetic monk and the upright retainer. It was this narrative of Enlightened Chonin pockets, that Saikaku would run with by creating the formal conventions of the genre on the back of Ryois and earlier trashier works 'critiquing' womens appearance between 1640-1650, by 1685.

Kambun Komin KTC

As part of Kambun KTC, we can also see the emergence of the material effects of the rise of the living standards for Chonin. As the Stabilisation policies brought economic prosperity to those previously living in poverty, they and their children enjoyed increasingly the fruits of this closed economy. This included an increased patronage of 'Japanese' artists such as the Machi-Eshi for those with means, and Komin or artist-craftsmen for the rest. This development came after 1639 through Sakoku, and saw a shift from dirty 'foreign' styles towards conservative styles, in painting this was the Fuzokuga-E depictions of Buddhist scenes for example rather the Kano Byobu of the Nanbanjin traders (made from 1590-1630).[6] 

The 1650s in particular saw a rise in art patronage of worldly pursuits.[6] That decade was defined by the struggle between the Komin like Iwasa Matabei (1578-1650) who existed between the brush and reality, and the samurai ruling class who sought to impose their moral codes onto the new money crowd. By the Kambun era though, the pursuit of erotic Kabuki dancers, the newly established Yuujo quarters all wrapped up in a Kimono Obi was a public affair as it seems the Chonin had become increasingly tired of hearing how salvation (Buddhahood) only came to the wealthy military elites. Over the period, the hypocritical nature of this state of a hyperfocus on the elite courts practiced since the Heian period began to shift in favour of creating a standard for the everyday person. And as the saying goes, you write about what you know first.

Their later Kambun beauty standards, as espoused in the Kambun Bijin, were in flux between this convergence of reconciling conservative Japanese Buddhist and Confucious values, with the new money lifestyle which the elites practiced themselves only to deny the Heimin. In this light, the Heimin seems to have seen fit to find Enlightenment in the arms of their Kagema or Wakashu in Yoshiwara, just as the lord found his in his Wakashu. The Heimin art of this period is truly a wonderful mess, like a teenager trying to find their way through puberty, it reflects a series of confusions of intentions, directions and solidarity of style. However by the middle of the decade, Kambun style begins to emerge in the hands of Komin-Chonin of publishers and illustrators like Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694), Kambun Master (act. 1661-1673) and Yoshida Hanbei (c.1664-1692).[7]

With Heimin now running the show as the merchant classes, their handiwork began to rewrite the beauty standards and it is during the Kambun period with which the rules for KTC begin to be liberally  rewritten. Their earlier incarnation, the Dress Manual, often gives away the acceptability politics game wealtheir Chonin played by, and other more artistic ventures done by the Komin-Chonin types reveals this shift towards Heimin worldview as the new standard. This standard often incurred the pursuit of those erotic Kabuki dancers and the Yuujo, particularly Tayuu as models. The fashions worn by these androgynous figures however, were made by those Komin-Chonin figures such as Hanbei, Moronobou and Asai Ryoi.

The Ryoi Enso

Enso are those non-complete Zen calligraphy circles you find labelled in pretentious Japanese art collections which simply put are an appreciation of when the hand has been allowed to wander in a circular form void of all worldly thought. The Ryoi Enso is that by the time society had come to grasp the inherent dual nature of Ukiyo Monogatari, the ineffable nature later to be called Mono-no-Aware had coem to be attached to many material things as an extension of the appreciation of transience in the human life. Objects had being given new meaning and understanding. Just as finding in watching passing Blossoms fall that this was beautiful, Objects had come to be appreciated as part of this new moral understanding of the physical world. The Japanese public had by 1670 also realised that Worldly material objects were also Mujyou, and this was celebrated.

As a material object, Kimono were also Mujyou, and thus the Kosode as an art object was born. Finding beauty in the transitory nature of textiles gave designers, craftsmen and artists overlap as was only seen before for the patronage of the Machi-Eshi. This work was now in the worldly domain of the Komin, such as Ryoi who interpreted this new Mujyou Art Object as it was now understood, through their Heimin lifestyles. Work was commissioned by Ryoi's own patrons in his own hand for his Shinsen O-Hiinagata, which captures the prototypes of what these Ukiyo or Urban lifestyles offerred. Artists saw Kimono now as an extension of their own imperment lives, a Mujyou canvas so to speak.

Shinsen Hiinagata (1667, PD) Asai Ryoi, British Library

Red Striped Shibori Zodiac Pattern

Shinsen Hiinagata (1667, PD) Asai Ryoi, British Library

Chrysanthemum Pattern

These art Kimono obviously still reflected the transient nature which had preceded them of course, and this is what I mean when I refer to the messiness of the Art Kimono. The Art Kimono, like Aesthetic dress, had to conform to the pre-existing silhouette at first, however the fabrics and aesthetics such as Ma in composition, and devlopment for Kimono of motifs as an extension of Mujyou, show us how the Art Kimono of the Kambun period came to be. As we see in Ryoi's work, the two-tone is still clearly prominent given the date, but the designs displayed are pushed to the right, a sign of good luck, and incorporate tacky motifs such as calligraphy and oversized motifs in the case of the Chrysanthemum.[9]

Examples of Pattern Books

Kosode Hiinagata (1667, PD) Anonymous, Meturo

Contemporary Kimono Patterns (1677, PD) Hishikawa Moronobu

Examples of Dress Manuals

Onna Shorei Shuu Tagasode (1660) Anonymous, NYPL

Dress and Table Manners from Rules of Etiquette for Women (1666) Yamada Ichirobei

Into the future

This lifestyle of Ukiyo or Chonin decadence had by this time moved over into money laundering schemes to combat sumptuary laws making art Kimono. Art Kimono can be pinpointed to the late Kambun era specifically as it is in this juncture when we see the greatest proliferation of Kosode sample books, Hinagata Bon and how existing Kimono design shifts to favour popular designs made popular by the masses rather than the ruling military elites who would have been the only group to have access to funds to make wide reaching purchases of lavish materials and skilled workers beforehand in any realistic amount. Fashionable Kosode for Heimin before this time, consisted of two tone patterns. By 1672, this had changed to favour styles like the Osaka Genroku Bijin, which saw drastic changes to the composition of Kimono, acceptable aesthetical influences, motifs, colours and techniques to design KTC with.

[Before] the Kambun era (1661-1673) Kosode were generally two colours and woven with metallic thread and goldleaf. During the introduction of foreign textiles and rise of the new middle classes from the import of cotton and sarasa, tastes, colour schemes and bank balances changed. B[etween 1665-]1684, the colour schemes of Kosode worn by the townspeople and [elites] became darker at the bottom, lighter at the top, to show off wealth as darker Kosode meant more dye, which required deep pockets [...] worn by Chonin wives, well paid Kabuki performers, and the Tayuu which became 'Iki' (1680s sexy). Popular dark dyes included Beni reds (amongst samurai) / Nise-kurenai (fake/ Dutch reds for the rest) and purples. [...] Regular women would simply don striped variations, or indigo Kimono [with] singular motifs, and both would go decorate their Kosode with wordly scenes, so scenes of the city. [...] Provincial districts and merchants now set the new standard, with Osaka frequently overtaking Kyoto artwares as fashionable. The Kosode of the Genroku Bijin [...] would often have use[d] new technologies to create vivid, wordly scenery on their kosode [with] Onnagata and Tayuu were often seen in these styles. Younger and poorer women [were found] sticking to older Kosode fabrics such as hemp, striped cottons, linens, ramie, plant fibres or indigos with layered recycled fabrics involving the Sashiko stitch (Stab stitch). They indeed often made their own Kosode, and by the middle of the 17th century weaving was a valuable skill for rural women. [8]

Aesthetical Enlightenment

This we can contextually see, resulted in what may be termed the Mono-no-aware Kimono. I dont say Kosode, but rather to refer to this being how we result from the pre-Kambun two tone Kosode to by the end of the era, the polychromatic and compositionally shifted Art Kosode as a reflection of a journey in the shift in though which Ryoi begins in his Ukiyo Monogatari. That is an awareness in Kambun KTC for the need to have a change in physical appearance to reflect Buddhist sensibilities in dress, in showing the transition of dress as a practicality in the Sengoku Jidai, to one of fashion for everyday people in these times of stable prosperity. 

Kosode were created in response to the dawning realisation that Buddhist aesthetics under Japanese notions, stressed the issue of Impermanence. Kimono were seen as an extension of the human existence, as they were tangible objects created around humans. They were therefore part and parcel of Dukkha, and should be experienced as such as part of this. Artists gave rise to this in their creation of Mujyou inspired designs in their Pattern Books, which inadvertently created fashion contrary to that of the stingy conservative Dress Manual. It was this shift in thinking about material life and objects, which saw the transformation of Decadent textiles into the Kosode as Art by appreciating that textiles were also Mujyou, and that each component of their construction and use was also Mujyou in creating the Kambun KTC Art Kimono, based on the Asai Ryoi Ukiyo framework to reach Englightenment.

Bibliography

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asai_Ry%C5%8Di 

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impermanence and also see the Glossary

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_land 

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukiyo-z%C5%8Dshi 

[5] See the Glossary

[6] See Bijin #9

[7] See Essay #8 

[8] See Bijin #3 

[9] https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2020/02/exquisite-patterns-japanese-textile-design-books.html 

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岩左勝重 | Iwasa Katsushige | 1650-1673 | Bijin #9

Iwasa Katsushige (active 1650-1673), was the son of Iwasa Matabei. His best known work is his Three Dancing Samurai. Katsushige shows the transition most clearly between the marked progression from the permissive (by the standards of the day) of the Kan'ei era (1624-1644) to lurid Fuzokuga E from their beginnings as classical Buddhist and Japanese Genre depictions such as Matabei in 1640-1650, which drifted over into the intense flaming world of Ukiyo-e by the time style of the Kambun Master had come into vogue in the 1660s.[7][9] 

In Katsushige's lifetime, Japanese society changed vastly. Over his career, the most popular or acceptable painting style would shift from Fuzokuga painting styles, under the influence of the new artisan class as a result of the widening stabilising effects of the policies put in place by the Tokugawa, who helped end the Sengoku Jidai using stability to consolidate their control over the patchwork fiefs of Japan. As the capital and with it, power, shifted to the East toward the new Tokugawa Capital of Edo from Kyoto, culture significantly changed. The Hikone screen is a good example of how more permissive figure painting became in the Kanei era (1624-1644) in the aftermath. This era came with the implementation of Kabuki, and the proliferation of printed and painted materials such as Shikomi-e and Kakemono-e of compendiums now available in travelling lending libraries (foldout carts) which promoted the Japanese androgynous beauty, or Bijin and subsequent formalisation of the Bijin-ga genre in Japanese art from  (1624-1673). 

Whilst it is most likely that Katsushige was influenced by the oeuvre he was surrounded by, we do not know of his immediate formative tutors or even his whereabouts in these years. By estimation and guesswork to fill in the blanks, speculatively Katsushige may have been influenced like his father by the Kano school of art in his earlier years between 1640-1650, but certainly he certainly moved over to be influenced by the Ukiyo-e world in the second half of his lifetime and career as an artist himself, particularly in the evolution of the human figure in courtly painting during the Kanei era onto Kakemono by the 1650's, and as the recognisable Bijin in the 1660-1670s which was supported by the rise of the Chonin patronage of the Ukiyo-e genre.

Early Ukiyo-e in Print and Technology

By the 1640's with the beginning of Sakoku, Japan had a greater need to distinguish itself and as such beauty had come to have greater meaning under Wamono, which was used to push a national narrative of ethnocentric Japaneseness. By the 1650s, this emerged with new vigour in the push of art patronage by Merchants and the Bakufu who favoured uniquely 'Japanese' styles and tastes which saw an increase of the work of local Komin work. This informed the Kambun beauty standards, with Komin creating Shikomi-E, being work which greatly interested the Komin of the time, mostly courtesan beauties. This precursor to Ukiyo-e, built upon the Buddhist figures found in the Tosa schools Yamato-e Fuzokuga figures.

The transition from Fuzokuga-e to Ukiyo-e, was brought about during this period by the aforementioned Komin class.[6] In the time when Fuzokuga-e were produced, morals allowed for men to acceptably pine after other young adults and monastic boy crushes. In the time of Ukiyo-e, morals had moved to such a point that the Komin now catered for radically different clientele. That is that Komin and their clients were producing, consuming and engaging the acts depicted in Shunga and Wakashudo, proudly hanging Kakemono from the Tokonoma of their boy toys. It was this Ukiyo-e world which saw rapid shifts and a flowering in the production of Bijin-ga, as a medium and trope heavily favoured by the Ukiyo Komin painters.

Three Dancing Samurai (c1649) Iwasa Katsushige

We can clearly see here from the earlier work of Katsushige, is that whilst he was clearly a reknowned or painter of some merit; his work has survived intact after all for 300 years; he did not deviate heavily from the established classical painting styles of figures in Japanese painting schools in the first half of the 17th century. Whilst the faces here may not particularly seem like much, may I point you to the figure on the far left of the image. The 'samurai' in the black kosode has a particularly prominent pair of eyebrows in comparison to the eyebrows of his fellow Wakashu dancer on the far right. It is this small quirk in the detail which gives us a clue as to how Katsushige established his own artistic style, as this small quirk is an artistic license of sort in deviation from the established and simple facial features to my knowledge of other prominent artistic styles of the day. The eyebrows may emphasise that this is a man with particularly masculine features for example, or their wisdom perhaps, allowing the viewer a more personal connection with the figure by differentiating their facial features, albeit mildly.

The eyebrow deviation is interesting, because other prominent figure styles of the era emphasised uniform faces, in order to detract from the vanity of individualism or charm of an individual from overpowering the text accompanying images, which mostly at this time accompanied holy texts. Figures were there to encourage the reader to engage with the expected religious morals and virtues espoused by these texts and religious leaders, not to encourage vanity projects like Bijin Kakemono. The current example today may be religious comic strips and soft core porn. This changed drastically over Katsushige's career as a painter.

 The Popular Culture Kambun Figure

Grand Shimabara Courtesan (c.1661-1673) Yoshi

Beautiful pictures prior to 1650 are practically nonexistent, and until Matabei, even portraiture was seen as almost tantamount to a simple exercise in vanity. This tradition stemmed from the depiction of the human figure in the Tosa and Kano schools, who depicted figures slightly differently. Tosa depicted figures in the Yamato-e format, that is scenes from everyday Japanese life or pseudo-/historical accounts. The Kano school depicted moreso the Fuzokuga style which incorporated Classical Chinese accounts and brush style painting in gold leaf.[7] These scenes were those which the upper Kuge classes venerated in their scenes of devout religious moral stories which accompanied Buddhist texts, and thus were not made for aesthetical consumption in a hedonistic or tasteful manner.

Instead, after Matabei introduced the idea of portraiture in an 'art for arts sake' manner by painting himself in 1650 on the basis of the appreciation of Tang Chinese figure painting, these gradually filtered into the Komin sphere as an acceptable art form to paint, given Matabei's high prestige as a court painter. After a development in the Manji era, by the Kambun era the ideal of the pursuit of Beautiful figures was a socially acceptable subject to paint. With a transfer over to the Chonin also afoot as the economy shifted from land to money based economy model, Chonin and Komin tastes also deemed the Beautiful figures amongs themselves as worthy of being recorded and with this, the Bijin-ga figure was born.

The Kambun beauty held fast to ideals about Buddhist beauty and mixed it in with more modern 17th century philosophy about the human figure of pious or historical figures in simple costume. Kosode often stuck to 2-3 colours, figures flowed but were not sensual, and depictions of beauties generally stuck to safe source materials to do so at first. It was deemed societally acceptable to paint subjects such as Maiko and Shikomi at first due to the fact that they were performers of the high arts, although by the end of the era the images certainly could be read in other more licentious ways. Androgynous figures were (and still are) also heavily in vogue for setting beauty standards.

Shikomi-E; or Young Dancer Preparation Pictures; allowed Komin to subtly depict the more sensual nature of the human figure in an acceptable format under the frowsty standards of the day. They were a gradual move from the tightly controlled religious images of figures seen as acceptable by prior societal standards, venturing out into the new artform of Bijin-ga. The Shikomi-e appeal as drawn in the Kambun Master (1660-1673) style derived from the emerging Iwasa style of merging the classical Chinese Tang painting styles and Qiyun aesthetical quality with contemporaneous Japanese painting styles of Yamato-e.[7][8] This arose from Japanese acceptability politics at court, which saw Classical Chinese beauty and aesthetics merge with Wamono, to form at first religious, then aesthetical, then beautiful depictions of the human figure. 

Shikomi-e Hikone Screen Copy depicting a Yujo walking a dog (c.1645-1669) Anonymous

The style particularly used the S shape silhouette, an exposed nape, lavish Kosode and lengthy black hair worn by Kagema, Tayuu, Oiran and Yujo Courtesans in the Yuukaku ( Lawful Pleasure district | 遊廓). This silhouette and format followed the example set in Chinese Classical painting of elegance and certain hairstyles were also imitated in later years as well.[7] These performers were often the lovers and muses of the Komin who would become their frequent clientele. As time went on, performers were increasingly being painted alongside Kabuki performers as subjects as well. 

This was a painting style which went alongside Kanazoshi ( Kana Books | 仮名草子 ) [popular / likely high circulation between 1630 - 1660] and Shunga (as we know it being popular from 1580-1660), thus developing societal beauty standards of acceptable Bijin-ga. These were both relatively new print formats for the masses, with the technology only being decades old in Japan, written by writers like Asai Ryoi (1612-1691) whose characters frequented brothels, just like his intended audience. Indeed, it was Ryoi whose Ukiyo Monogatari ( Tales of the Floating World | 1666) encouraged and popularised the Kambun Heimin hedonistic lifestyle which came to be known as Ukiyo-e.[10] These soft core and danger-pictures of Kanazoshi were the precursor to Saikaku (1642-1693), who would go on to form the Ukiyo-zoushi ( Floating world Books | 浮世草子 ) genre from 1680-1770.[11]

Katsushige's Contribution

Untitled (c.1670-1673) FromJapanWithLove

The surviving works of Katsushige are interesting, as they acquiesce certain secrets about Kambun KTC beauty standards, the arrival of Furisode as we know them and how these intersect with Ukiyo-e. KanKTC was particularly transgressive, being the end-labours of the Komin and Chonin castes. This particular work above for example, shows how the Furisode, a garment which had evolved from the 1550s as a garment for samurai people, to by the 1670s have sleeves long enough to trail along the floor worn by the young as a symbol of their decadent and lavish youth. 

Katsushiges personal contribution here provides again, a more personal or unique face. The rest of the image is predictably of its time. The Kosode kept to a simple colour scheme, the posture a well worn Shikomi-E standard, and the proportions, focus and subject matter standard for the time. In terms of development of his style over the decades here, Katsushige clearly though has fallen into the Ukiyo-e crowd, or that beauty standards at the least had become heavily reliant on the 'lower' classes taste to inform popular cultural opinion on wider societal beauty standards by the end of the Kambun era, which had deemed figures by then to fall more into the realm of the Beautiful Lover trope which Komin often favoured then. 

 The Kojin Bijin 

In a Confucian manner, Katsushige has refined his fathers work into a more distinct set of motifs and tropes. Therefore in context, we see how Katsushiges' Bijin followed in the ouevre of his father, carrying their own facial expressions and sybaritic Kimono, free flowing Kosode and Kitsuke than in Matabei's comparatively stiff figures. The facial expressions and features being the most striking difference, as Katsushige's features are defined and clearly more solid than those of his father, as representative of the times (Kanei and Kambun) each drew in. 

Perhaps the key difference here though, is that by the second half of Katsushige's career, Katsushige was operating in the world of early Ukiyo-e. A world which Matabei's work whilst a portraiture prototype was certainly not as lurid as the Shunga then beginning to be produced en masse, and informed by the popular masses rather than at the whims of court nobles and their high brow art friends. It is in this vein, that we see that Katsushige formed his own pre-cursor beauty, the Kojin Bijin (individual personal beauty), reflecting the shift in how the human figure in Japanese art from Court painters in the Kanei to Komin painters by the Kambun saw and understood the human figure in aesthetical merits. Matabei being a Buddhist court painter, and Katsushige being an elevated Ukiyo-e painter, in the era which gave rise to the Bijin-ga genre aesthetic under the patronage of the lower class artist and their subject matters by the Enpo era (1673-1681). 

Bibliography.

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

[2] https://news.cgtn.com/news/2019-08-05/Would-magpies-help-reunite-China-s-mythological-lovers--IUw0yXfUL6/index.html

[3] https://asianbotanical.ku.edu/plum-0

[4] https://propertyinsight.com.my/why-does-vmgzcs/sparrow-symbolism-japan-24ab02

[5] https://www.christies.com/features/5-Victorian-beauties-and-what-they-tell-us-about-the-time-in-which-they-were-painted-6799-1.aspx

[6] See Essay #8

[7] See Bijin #1

[8] See Bijin #7

[9] See Bijin #6

[10] Views of the Floating World, Money L. Hickman, 1978, Vol. 76, p.5, MFA Bulletin

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukiyo-z%C5%8Dshi

Bijin Series Timeline 

8th century

- Introduction of Chinese Tang Dynasty clothing (710)

- Sumizuri-e (710)

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

15th century 

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

16 century 

- Nanbanjin Art (1550-1630)

- 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  

- 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)

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

- 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 

Miyazaki Yuzen (active 1688-1736) [Coming Soon]

Torii Kiyonobu (active 1698 - 1729) [Coming Soon]

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岩佐 又兵衛 | Iwasa Matabei | 1578 - 1650 | Bijin #6

Iwasa Matabei (active 1617-1650) was the son of the Samurai Araki Murashige (d.1586) who served under Oda Nobunaga. After his father's death and subsequent upbringing in Kyoto in 1579, he took his mothers name and pioneered the later depiction of figures in Fuzokuga or Genre Painting in Japanese Art.[7] Classical art forms such as Ink wash and Full colour painting were part of Iwasa's portfolio which combined both the Fuzokuga of the Tosa and Kano schools. His work is known for its early use of figures, who characteristically often have large heads and delicate body features as depicted in Classical Asian figure art history. His work is often today seen as the forerunning link or influence between the divergent mid 17th century Classical Japanese High and Low Arts of Yamato-e and Ukiyo-e.[1] He is therefore regarded as the 'founder of Ukiyo-e'.[7]

Self portrait (1650) Iwasa 'Katsumochi' Matabei

The changing Japanese Figure

Classical Buddhist notions of beauty imported from the Asian mainland held that portraiture was a vain venture, such as idolatry in some Christian traditions was considered. Therefore until the later Muromachi period, figures were kept in small numbers with little detail in Japanese art, which reflected the standards of the Buddhist mainland traditions, particularly that of Chinese artists. However by the beginning of the Edo period (1603-1868), this had begun to change. Primarily this change came with the influx of foreigners such as the Portuguese, who are depicted lavishly in Nanbanjin Art of the period.  During the first quarter of the 17th century on with Stabilisation policy and the end of the warring period, Japanese merchants became wealthier than the upper classes who did not trade with these foreigners. As such, the reins of power changed hands and a new taste came about reflecting these changing circumstances.

Kano School (c.1599) Kano Eitoku | Tosa School (c.1517) Tosa Mitsunobu 

Fuzokuga or Genre Painting, here Historical & Religious Scenes

With this in mind, Fuzokuga painting was developed from the branching arts of the second quarter of the 16th century which still prioritised the conveyance of Buddhist art and teachings, but had begun to open its purse strings to the artisans. Figures by the middle of the century therefore, became not indicators of the mortal and simply carcasses which carried Buddhist high-minded morals in lengthy scrolls and screens depicting Monogatari decrying the wicked, but instead evermore a representation of the Everyday. Art during the 1630's is a prompt move from the religious to depicting the lives of wealthy Chonin. However printing was not yet in full effect. Whilst a limited number of Sumizuri-e were printed, these were often seen as simply expensive and technologically advanced E-maki ( 絵巻 | Hand-scrolls). Instead of the monochrome images in these, Artists and Wealthy patrons often commissioned instead Kakemono, or hanging wall scrolls to be admired in the Tokonoma ( 床 | wall alcove) which were normally in full colour. Before 1615 these were incredibly rare, but became more prominent later on.

Classical Beauties

It was in this climate that Iwasa would have begun his painting career, one which saw incredibly early portrayals of figures. Often these were based on Edo notions of Classical beauty, such as the works of Zhou Fang (Chinese scroll painter active in Tang China) and Japanese Heian figures, which would have been considered suitable to being committed to eternal representation. Iwasa was under the tutelage of Kano Naisen (1570–1616), who would more than likely have introduced Iwasa to Nanbanjin art, which prominently featured figures in its depictions. Iwasa therefore trained under the Kano school in his youth.[1][3] In Kyoto Iwasa would have studied traditional Japanese and Chinese art, traditions and subjects.

Nanban Byobu (c.1600) Kano Naisen

Tosa was known for its Yamato-e (Classical Japanese depictions) and Kano for the rendering by Japanese artists of Chinese folklore and history.[2] Naisen who is remembered today for his byobu with figures would have for the time been creating radically new forms of traditional Kano art by incorporating such lavishly detailed contemporary figures, rather than depicting classical or mythological figures. With the death of his mentor in the Kano school however in 1616 he became involved in the court of Matsudaira Tadanao (1595-1650) by 1617, where he began signing his work as 'Katsumochi' and 'Doun'.[7] Some of his wealthier patrons may include Karasumaru Mitsuhiro (1579-1638), Masaaki Atsukai (dates unknown), and Sonjun Hosshinno (1591-1653). 

Tale of Genji (c.1600-1638) Tosa Mitsunori

Fortunately for us, Matabei, most likely considered himself a social pariah of the upper class world of courtiers and princes, felt more at home with the comparably lower class Machishu ( 町衆 | old money wealthy Kyoto merchants).[8] By 1620-1630, it is hypothetically viable that Iwasa had begun to form a reputation for his style, and formed a circle of like-minded people around himself who helped him to develop his understanding and appreciation of classical and applied art and eventually it is believed he may have studied under Tosa Mitsunori in Sakai until 1635.[5][7] By 1637 Iwasa had moved out to Edo, becoming a Chonin himself.[6][7] In the late 1630's with his connections and now established personal portraiture style, he was commissioned by Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651) to draw portraits of the 36 Poetry Immortals (1640).[1] Other painted commissions in the style included the Ise, Genji and Horie Monogatari.[9]

The Four Pleasures (c.1624, CC) Iwasa Matabei 

It seems that by the time Iwasa had established himself as the successor of the Tosa School, he often frequently flipped between the Kano and Tosa sensibility in the theoretical idolatry of depicting contemporary figures his own teachers straddled and therefore Iwasa himself broke away from the repetive molds of Kakemono, Handfan and Byobu depicting traditional war tales like the Horie to instead depict modern portraiture more in line with the style of the Tosa. Seemingly the first of many Japanese artists to do so, he is said to have drawn figures with a keen sense of wit and charm to his figures which broke with tradition by humanising the figure whilst keeping within expected stylistic confines of the day, having a highly down to earth character to his approach to depiction.[4] 

Characteristic components of the Iwasa style include large heads, humourous posture and highly refined facial and appendage detail applied with fine brushes. Many of his poses such as The Four Pleasures often feature languishing, lounging or horizontal postures. As typical of the Tosa school, none of his figures ever face the viewer, frozen in place in their heavenly depictions of Buddhist lifestyle and behaviour. Whilst it is thought that his work was too upper-class to be related in any form to the lascivious world of Ukiyo-e, Iwasa and his students instead shows us the bridge Japanese art took in the depiction of figures as being something of High Art to Everyday Art, in providing the kindling so to speak for the proverbial Bijin Kindling of the 1670's Bijin Bonfire seen in works of Jihei and Moronobu.[1]

Seated Courtesan (c.1661-1688) Iwasa School in British Museum

Yamato-E Bijin

The Iwasa Bijin is therefore early High Art; presented in full colour, which appealed to the conservative patron or readers sensitivities providing a bridge between the cycles of Samsara. Iwasa has inadvertently in creating his own independent art in the Tosa style, developed figures to such an extent that he has created a new form of figure, the attractive figure, rather than simple figures for religious purposes. The beauty of Iwasa's style uses previously existing traditional art theory and combines that with increasingly 'baser' lower cultural influences, such as Naisen's contemporary Nanban ornate figurines and combines that with Tosa figurine art theory and Iwasa's knowledge and appreciation of Classical Chinese art to create his own modern style. His figures were for the Kanbun era, a cultural reset in the truest sense of the idea of that and opened doors for further artistic license in the future of the acceptable portrayal of figures. Whilst colour and material is traditionally aligned, artistic license here is the key to the Iwasa way. Body language, subtlety and delicate linework combine to create unique portraiture in this floating or transient world between Buddhist iconography art theory (the work itself that is) and the viewer, therefore transforming the possibility of figures as simply false idols to that of the Chonin ideal. That is a flesh and blood human idol which Chonin could look to for guidance and to reflect their own struggles and desires as members of the lower classes whilst still respectably depicting the Buddhist ideals they also admired and followed. This is reflected in Shikomi-e when we think of how a society with previously only portraiture of noble women, courtiers and nuns, all exemplars of good moral wives, could suddenly have the male gaze turned onto them. Again, the masquerade of respectable Buddhist icons of dancing artisans, who are in fact to the 17th century gentlemen of Japanese artisans simply Bijin. Thus allowing the birth of the Bijin-ga in a previously highly conservative art tradition priorly produced in temples to depictions of Maiko with their Eri slipping all over their delectable napes. The Iwasa Bijin, whilst not to the Genpei, but certainly to the Kanbun era, is therefore the Yamato-e Bijin. A depiction of a conservatively appropriate and Ga (refined) female beauty. Iwasa Bijin are bold for their time, breaking barriers of acceptability politics between the new and old money at the beginning of the Edo period during a period of new-found stability and spending after over 130 years of continous warring.

For more examples (I am limited legally by Copyright restrictions on what I can/cant show here):

1) https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-1340750 'Dallying Couples'

2) The Yamanaka Tokiwa Scrolls

3) https://alchetron.com/Iwasa-Matabei

Bibliography

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

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosa_school

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kan%C5%8D_Naizen

[4] https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG3703

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosa_Mitsunori

[6] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Iwasa-Matabei 

[7] An illustration of the Ise monogatari : Matabei and the Two Worlds of Ukiyo, Sanoy Kita, 1984, pp.252-258, The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art

[8] https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/history/Machi-shu.html

[9] https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/horie-monogatari-emaki-illustrated-tale-of-horie-iwasa-marabei/wAGvQnBxpyKeAw?hl=en

Bijin Series Timeline 

8th century

- Introduction of Chinese Tang Dynasty clothing (710)

- Sumizuri-e (710)

- Classical Chinese Art ; Zhou Fang (active 766-805) [Coming Soon]

15th century 

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

16 century 

- Nanbanjin Art (1550-1630)

- Byobu Screens (1580-1670)

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

17th century  

- 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  

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

- Shikomi-e (1650-1670) and Kakemono-e which promote Androgynous Beauties; Iwasa Katsushige (active 1650-1673) [Coming Soon] 

- Mass Urbanisation instigates the rise of Chonin Cottage Industry Printing (from 1660) ; 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)

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

- 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 

Miyazaki Yuzen (active 1688-1736) [Coming Soon]

Torii Kiyonobu (active 1698 - 1729) [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/ 

井原 西鶴 | Ihara Saikaku | 1642-1693 | Bijin #3 | The Genroku Bijin

Ihara Saikaku, born Hirayama Tōgo (平山藤五), was a Japanese poet and creator of the "floating world" genre of Japanese prose (ukiyo-zōshi). He was the son of a wealthy merchant in Osaka, and by 1662 he became a haikai-no-renga (俳諧の連歌| linked-verse-haiku-chain) master and began to establish himself as a popular haikai poet. In 1670, he had become an established writer with his own writing style, which frequently depicted merchants or Chonin (町人|'town-people') in their natural habitat, The pleasure districts. In 1675 his wife died and he composed a hella long poem, taking 12 hours to write, written in her memory. It is said that it is this which prompted him to began writing novels. When his youngest daughter also died, he became a non-practicing-monk and began travelling around Japan. By 1677 he returned to Osaka, and hearing of the success of his 1675 poem took up writing again.

He then began writing prose fiction and he had published The Life of an Amorous Man (1682), The Great Mirror of Beauties: Son of an Amorous Man (1684), Five Women Who Loved Love (1685), The Life of an Amorous Woman (1686) and The Great Mirror of Male Love (1687) which was particularly detailed, and Comrade Loves of the Samurai (1687, Translated Collation). These later works have aged like good wine so to speak, as they were highly popular at their time of release (puns) and have remained incredibly popular among the LGBTQIA community today for their elaborative detail in Japanese history on the matter, popularised in the UK by Edward Carpenter himself (1844-1929).[1] These Erotica drew on Ihara's Chonin stories, which are said to be both satirical and comical.[2] His style was said to be so outlandish its only reference point was to the exotic 'Dutch' styles brought in by Dutch sailors into Dejima. His 1686 'Amorous Woman' novel is best remembered.[3] In 1952 it was made into the Life of Oharu.[4]

Yonosuke with a Telescope (1686) Ihara Saikaku

From Osacca to Iedo (1680)

Ihara had begun upping-the-ante and created incredibly lude E compared to what had gone before in Japans historical figure art (the majority, even in Abuna-e being clothed up to this time). His accounts were mostly like saucy novellas of the lives of people from the new wealthy Chonin and their lovers, but its Osaka. His 1682 novel for instance, has the protaganist Yonosuke, who from 6-60 goes about on a island populated only by women in a bid for devoted love. These books were written to be circulated by the wider public, but the market was made due to the demand for merchant whimsy fulfillment, particularly around the pleasure district genre.[3] 

A Pleasure district worker, flashing their ankles (1723) Nishikawa Sukenobu

As a result of his works being set amongst the Chonin, his works are both evocative of a sort of new-money beauty, which was considered rather tacky amongst the upper samurai of the time. There is indeed a lot of questionable material, but also offer a glimpse into the average kosode of the time, and some of the varied levels beauty began to take. Cheap to the rich, is not cheap to the poor as we all well know, you can only afford so many Obi before customs comes for your neck on a silver platter after all.

The kosode seen in the Sumizuri-e accompanying his 1682-1687 erotica therefore are a good indicator of what consituted the Chonins Bijin so to speak. Whilst images of finely dressed Tayuu were common to the hoi polloi as they would have been seen parading down the long avenues with their 2 child attendants and set trends, this was more of a trickle-down-economics approach. The Kosode popular in these E therefore are simpler, often using only one motif and one colour. Richer Chonin have more motifs, more colours etc but this is also due to the constraint of the sumptuary laws set by the Tokugawa Shogunates Government. This was particularly true in Osaka, a city known in Japan for its big-spenders (Japanese stereotype not mine), in the vein of Kaneo Takarada from Kill la Kill.

Ihara's Bijin in his Suzumuri-e reflected national standards and as such are reflective of the wider merchant patronage of the arts, which lead to the creation of the new textile culture in the Kansai region in the Genroku period, leading to the merchants patronage of Genroku textile culture by Osaka Genroku Nakama. This textile culture however sprang from a combination of:-

 - Stabilisation policy after civil war (1590-1615) 

 - 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) 

which merchants combated by using workarounds to create new kosode cultures through art patronage, woodblock prints and by merging old artforms together to create unique new kimono and art objects.

A spot of wrestling, in the fashions of 1702 (c.1711-16) Artist Unknown

Sumptuous Silky and Silvery Sanctions and the rise of the Chonin (1590-1700)

Sankin Kotai procession

Stabilisation Policy (1590-1615)

With the end of the Sengoku Jidai (戦国時代|Age of the country at war) over the Keicho period (1596-1615) came the emergence of the Sankin Kotai, when people began to move into the cities to be with their newly roving lords at first, and later to engage in the business that catered to the roving lords, with merchants owning a store in the city, and another in the countryside.[9] This was due to a policy of stabilsation and appeasement furthered by the last of the 2 unifiers of Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa. Policy changes included the 1596 Hideyoshi edict which removed a large number of swords from practicing samurai in an effort to curb violent crime for example. The 1590's brought an increased trade for Kyoto Nishijin-ori silk merchants amongst these stabile trade conditions from wealthy clients.[8] 

Instability however until 1615 however was rife with vigilante justice, with many Kabukimono (傾奇者|samurai gangs) & Machi-yakko (町奴|village paramilitiaries) who comprised the leftover Ronin (wandering samurai) left behind or without an overseer due to the end of Japan's many civil and local wars, which the policies aimed to regulate by creating new national workforces and systems for these displaced persons.[18] Machi Yakko contributed to the disruption of these policies by practicing non-conformity, one of their Mon crests for example combined a Kama (sickle), Wa (Circle) & the Kana phoneme for 'nu' to make Kama-wa-nu, literally "who cares", which directly questioned the political authority of sumptuary laws and the bias class structures at a time when mass hunger and infanticide were common amongst townspeople, but not amongst their ruling overlords.[11]

Osaka posh totties (1680) Tamura Suio

Sumptuary Laws (1604-1685)

Sumptuary laws simply put in England were used to dictate who could wear what colours, type of clothing, furs, fabrics, and trims from the serfs to the King. This was to establish class hierarchy, or material textile culture (so why we think Velvet is a fancy material for example, as it was Henry VIII's textile of choice) and also to regulate the English textile industry in exports and imports to bring revenue into England and to keep it out of France (a tough job as English exports were basically wool and the itchy grey broadcloth). This general idea times by about 100 applies to why the Shogunate governate regulated the Japanese textile culture and market. Whereas England has tips, Japan had R-U-L-E-S.[5] From arguably 1604-1684, new laws were put in place to try to limit the expediency of frugal Chonin. However by 1688-1720, these new Chonin had become wise to the sumptuary laws and began becoming patrons of the arts. The Chonin's spending power was vast under military policy, and and during the Kan'ei-Enpo periods (1624-1681) began to be spent on Kabuki actors and around pleasure districts. These designs quickly began to be flashier and often outshone the Kosode worn by the Bakufu (幕府|tent-government). Eventually to save face, the upper classes began to adopt these evermore expensive outfits, to keep up with the times.[9] This however became an increasingly non-option for the Bakufu who were used to living above the peasants, not borrowing from them.

Tsumugi Silk on the left; Ie, cheapy scratchy silk

Sumptuary laws stipulated things such as what fabrics and dyes could be used based upon a persons rank, decided by bloodlines at the time. The lowest of society like farmers (principally merchants though), for instance could not wear silk unless it was Tsumugi silk (waste-silk), Hemp, arrowroot, wisteria or Tilia Japonica fibres instead. The Hollyhock, Paulownia and Chrysanthemum and Beni/Murasaki dye only being allowed to be worn by nobility etc etc.[11] Merchants were later denied wearing red by the late 18th century as it was a sign of nobility and so on. This went further when considering how merchants came by their fortunes, as noble Japanese men only were allowed to make their fortunes by selling their own wares. If like merchants you sold other peoples wares, you were seen as belonging with the pondscum of society.

Beni Dyed Kimono (1850)

The Meireki Fire of 1657 (1661) Terajima Ryoan

In Edo, merchants (Fudasashi) dealt in rice. In Osaka, these bigger merchants were the Kakeya (Moneylender) and Kuramoto (Salesman), some of whom had begun to wear the shorter sword of the samurai class, which under Confucian Buddhist Japanese standards was a no-no. Particularly to the disgruntled Tozama daimyou (outsider lords) at first. Other smaller merchants such as peddlers, entertainers and manual labourers were also gaining more wealth. Merchants in Kyoto were known for their culture, Edo for their power, and Osaka for their money. Ihara himself noted the expediency of Osaka merchants money related priorities, a pride in enterprise they held in high esteem for themselves and their wider families. This was found in self-made merchants like Kawamura Zuiken (1614-1700) who began as a cart-peddlar, and whose quick thinking after the 1657 great fire of Edo in buying local timber made him rich overnight. Edo merchants such as Kinokuniya Bunzaemon (紀伊国屋文左衛門, 1669 – 1734) were particularly known in the pleasure districts for their lavish spending.[14] 

The Matsuura Byobu depicting contemporary fashions (c.1650) Iwasa Matabei

By the 1660's, Osaka Kuramoto and Kabunakama who specialised in the cash crop Cotton, instead began making domestic Kosode from Indian Sarasa prints.[8][16] The Kabunakama (株仲間|merchant guilds) began developing due to broken Nakama (contract-merchants) contracts and the cooperation and social contacts between provincial, regional and city merchants began to grow into the recognisable new flourishing Chonin class.[8][15] The Chonin according to the Chonin themselves therefore upon retirement, was to leave behind his wealth, and live a life of refinement in following Kodou, Shudo, Chado, Archery, Waka, Music, and to refrain from swearing in tripping over his purple hems.[14] In the Genroku period (1688-1704) the Chonin began to become wealthier than the Bakufu, given the Chonin dealt in coin, whereas the Japanese Warrior (read:Samurai) dealt in rice, and thereby died by the Koku-stipend.[10]  Rice goes off however, so generally Chonin had a bit more leverage with accumulating wealth, from their businesses in printing, textiles, etc to meet the ratio of Supply and Demand creating in the years of population control and stabilisation policy under the new Shogunate. 

Eventually the Bakufu or upper classes became evermore indebted to the Chonin or middle classes, a situation seen as untenable by the Bakufu who began issuing more stringent Sumptuary laws.[8][9] In 1683 laws were made denying lower classes from using embroidered crests and dyers could not use certain dye-processes to increase the shine or silk reflection in a kosode, and by 1684 Chonin and artisans classes were warned against using flamboyant silks and instead to wear pongee Kosode.[11] By 1685 though these Sumptuary laws directly targeted the Chonin in favour of the indebted upper classes, banning lucrative trade and displays of Confucian vulgarity; banning the merchants from flaunting their wealth in luxurious textiles. 

Genroku Kosode, known for its full red Kosodes, Kana and Shibori designs (c. late 17th century)

Gneroku Kosode Design from a sample book, note the Red Shibori fans (c.1680's) 

Shunga Trio in Genroku Kosode (c.1690-1740) Miyagawa Chosun

These laws began as a Tokugawa reaction against Chonin Genroku Textile Culture.[11] But the laws in the end had little effect with textile production and culture only shifting to fit the needs of the clients.[9] As Tenka no Shonin (merchants of the nation), they held themselves now to higher callings, one of these being the elevation of the common art of clothing. Although it was more common to see Kyoto and Edo merchants spending lavish amounts, Osaka merchants were more known for their originality due to their frugality[14] leading to more cultural awareness at times than old Kyoto culture and city dwelling Edo merchants. 

Courtesan and Attendant, note the courtesans Iki Kosode, and how they sit atop Genroku Kosode (c.1688) Hishikawa Moronobu

Osaka Genroku culture, was bold, loud, brash and in your face- the new money of entrepreneurs. In contrast for the old money, this also resulted in the pushing of the notion of Iki (being chic and reserved) by the upper classes in conformity with Confucian ideas of propriety and dress derived from Buddhist Wabi Sabi aesthetics of finding the hidden beauty in the non-material. How you dressed therefore was also a politicial statement of your background.[11]

The world after the partition for Spain and Portugal under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

Regulation of Foreign Trade (1615-1640)

The final component of the catalyst for Genroku merchant culture was the control of foreign goods to create their luxurious textiles and goods. Foreign trade was regulated and imposed upon most heavily during the Genna period, but had its roots in the Ito-wappu Nakama system founded in 1604 which regulated which cities could import raw silk fibres into Japan.[17] With a number of extraterritorial incidents from 1595-1615 from European powers, the Bakufu became increasingly wary of foreign tradesmen and so-called-diplomats from these countries, particularly as under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) Spain could have laid claim to Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku and Portugal to Kyushu. 

Portugal for instance had begun converting heavily in the 1590s, bringing new technology such as the printing press from Korea and cotton from India in small amounts to Japan. It was under the Bakufu inauspicious reservations in the Genna period (1615-1624) of these powers, that Osaka Chonin beginning in 1624 had begun to become rich from the sale of textiles like Cotton and Silk, first traded with China and India.[6] It was this homegrown cotton industry created by the Genna Chonin which allowed Kosode to become a mass consumer product amongst the Chonin, and demonstrated their new middle class spending power with the Commonfolk however still dressed in local fabrics (Hemp, Linen, Ramie, and Bashofu) though to make their Kimono.[7][8] 

Indian Coromandel Sarassa export sample for the Japanese market (c.1675-1725)

The import of foreign textiles even extended to the Fundoshi which Chonin began making out of Indian silk.[9] Indian Chintz or Sarasa also began to be imported from Coromandel Coast, India, by the Portuguese as Sarassa which hold religious significance in certain areas of India. Most likely introduced around Nagasaki or Osaka, these printed calico fabrics being cheap to produce and brightly coloured textiles quickly became a new opportunity for Osaka merchants to make purses, Furoshiki (風呂敷|wrapping cloths) and tea related paraphenalia to attach to Kosode.[16] 

Sanctions on imports against European trade was made by the Bakufu in an effort to control the outflow of silver from Japan, the English leaving Japan in 1623, the Dutch being allowed to trade only in Dejima after 1635 and the total expulsion of Iberian traders after 1639. Further consolidation of the Bakufu's sakoku policy followed, when in 1631 the Ito-wappu system was extended to Osaka to regulate the silk trade directly under the Shogunates rule.[17]  From 1655-1685 this saw a level decline with the Kyoto Chonin seeing a new demand for silk after the reintroduction of Ito-wappu in 1685 saw the creation of a homegrown market around Kansai for silk, alongside the ban of Chinese imported silk to Japan in the same year.[7][8] This focused textile production in a closed national Japanese system of production creating the conditions to focus on home-made textiles.

The Genroku Osaka Bijin (1680 - 1700)

The Osaka merchants of the Genroku period became well known as the highpoint of Kabuki and pleasure district culture, promoting the arts of theatre and Asobi-dressing. It was said by the essayist Kato Eibian (1763–1829) in the 1820s, that by Genroku accounts that Osaka was 'by day a paradise, and by night as lavish as the dragon-kings palace'.[14] This lead to the proliferation of textile culture and print media, most easily summed up in the invention of the Yakusha-e (役者絵|Actor-print), one of the defining features of Ukiyo-e for print collectors today. Yakusha-e and Kabuki, and art patronage combined dramatically to transform the importance of dress, and how Kosode could and should be worn. An impetus for aesthetical dress you could say like the artistic dress of 1860-1890 in England.

Nuishime-shibori roundels (c.1568-1615)

Hanging scroll (1690) Miyazaki Yuzen

Sashiko stitch examples (c.1850)

Locally produced Japanese Sarasa fabrics and stencils (c.1700)

Under these new conditions Kosode became ever more elaborate and ornate, reflecting popular art styles of the time. Techniques such as the Nuishime Shibori (Stitch Resist Tie-dye) were created.[9][12] Yuzen (友禅染|resist dye) from the fan-painter Miyazaki Yūzen (宮崎 友禅斎, 1654-1736), and the calligrapher Yuezen Hiinakata (dates unknown) also emerged in reaction against sumptuary laws where Kana and fan painting were applied directly to Kosode in imitation of hanging scrolls.[9][13] Kogin stitch (counted thread embroidery) was pioneered for farmers working in winter.[11] Katazome (rice paste resist dyeing) Katagami (Katazome premade-stencils) were applied by Kuramoto to Kosode to make Sarasa prints (Indian themed patterns) in floral and animal motifs.[16] Art and textile in Japan therefore became one and the same, developed through older Heian, Shinto and Buddhist aesthetic and visual traditions. 

Kambun 2 tone Kosode (c.1660)

Kambun Kosode metallic thread details (c.1660-1670)

Genroku Kosode Spatial Arrangement being Bottom Heavy (c.1680)

In the Kambun era (1661-1673) Kosode were generally two colours and woven with metallic thread and goldleaf. During the introduction of foreign textiles and rise of the new middle classes from the import of cotton and sarasa, tastes, colour schemes and bank balances changed. By 1684, the colour schemes of Kosode worn by the townspeople and Bakufu became darker at the bottom, lighter at the top, to show off wealth as darker Kosode meant more dye, which required deep pockets which more than often were worn by Chonin wives, well paid Kabuki performers, and the Tayuu which became 'Iki' (1680s sexy). Popular dark dyes included Beni reds (amongst samurai) / Nise-kurenai (fake/ Dutch reds for the rest) and purples.[9] A pound of Beni pigment was said to be worth a pound of gold.[11]

By 1688-1690, Yuzen dyed Kosode had become popular.[13] Uchikake also began to take on their 'furi-furi' (flapping sound) effect for young women, Kabuki performers and Asobi at this time, becoming licentious to the male population as a symbol of youth, with intricate and minute but everyday motifs like fans in ode to Buddhist humility. Regular women would simply don striped variations, or indigo Kimono which singular motifs, and both would go decorate their Kosode with wordly scenes, so scenes of the city. Bakufu wives may instead have decorated using more ethereal and abstract source material such as Genji, or the Hawks feathers to evoke classical Heian themes of love, bravery and piety.[9][11] 

Chonin however set the standard for the Kosode's spatial arrangement and composition.[9] Provincial districts and merchants now set the new standard, with Osaka frequently overtaking Kyoto artwares as fashionable.[14] The Kosode of the Genroku Bijin therefore would most likely be depicted dependent upon the subject matter, but would often have use new technologies to create vivid, wordly scenery on their kosode, Onnagata and Tayuu were often seen in these styles. Younger and poorer women sticking to older Kosode fabrics such as hemp, striped cottons, linens, ramie, plant fibres or indigos with layered recycled fabrics involving the Sashiko stitch (Stab stitch).[8] They indeed often made their own Kosode, and by the middle of the 17th century weaving was a valuable skill for rural women. Richer merchants in the Genroku period would have worn deep reds, blue and purples and the closer a merchant became a samurai, the more otherwordly his garb would become, more likely to be wearing Kyoto Beni silks, than an Osaka Kuramoto's Sarasa patterned Kosode. All of this brought about new questions at the time over agency, social climbing, job security and rank throughout Japanese society as the Osaka merchants welcomed in poor and rural workers the upper classes would or did not.[11]

From Amorous Women, note the 'extreme' length of the sleeves (1686) Ihara Saikaku

Ihara noted that ;-

"In everything people have a liking for finery above their station. Women’s clothes in particular go to extremes.".[11]

Therefore when we see the Bijin figures in Ihara's Suzumi-e, even in the pared down variant of Ihara who preached the 'less is more' approach himself to Kosode (given the garish, financial, illegal and dubious ethical toll of expensive dress), we can see how local cottage industries which produced recycled garments, had entered into the next epoch of faster fashion, with the inclusion of new technologies, fabrics and ideas of aesthetical acceptability fostered by the Osaka floating world and entrepreneurial merchant classes, colliding with the older more traditional notions of dress, sumptuary laws informed by Confucian ideas of propriety (which formed the notion for Iki; or Chic reservedness) amongst the Bakufu and how these were combined to make Genroku textile culture, which produced more vivid, ostentatious and elaborate layered kosode from (1630-1670), and darker garments toned down garments from (1670-1700) seen in the Suzumi-e of Ihara Saikaku in his 1680 erotica and other print media of the period which incorporated Indian, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese and Japanese design techniques and technologies. Womens dress had become more 'furi' as Japanese society base grew to be more consumer orientated as it shifted away from feudalism, with the birth of the flamboyant or being extra Bijin, who may be austere on top, but is certainly sumptuous underneath with their flash of handpainted cheap red (the cheetah print of its day), a dynamic which defines the Kimono-Hime of today in the balancing act of understatement and flamboyance.[11]

Bibliography 

[1] https://www.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.21313/hawaii/9780824866693.001.0001/upso-9780824866693-chapter-012

[2] https://endpaper60.rssing.com/chan-12330711/article379.html

[3] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ihara-Saikaku

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihara_Saikaku

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_law [sidenote for those interested; broadcloth was frequent cause for argument among the EIC in Japan during the 1620s as it was seen as a lower form of fabric than silk when the English tried to sell it in Japan.]

[6] https://blog.patra.com/2020/09/11/history-of-japanese-silk/

[7] https://www.edo-now.com/project-05

[8] https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1605&context=tsaconf

[9] http://media.virbcdn.com/files/66/FileItem-252534-Kimono_Paper.pdf

[10] https://doctorjhwatson.wordpress.com/2015/11/18/the-koku-system/#:~:text=A%2050%2Dkoku%20stipend%20would,a%20great%20deal%20of%20strain.

[11] https://betweenthewarpandweft.wordpress.com/japanese-textiles-research-project/

[12] http://www.wodefordhall.com/page13.html

[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%ABzen

[14] Merchants and Society in Tokugawa Japan, Charles Sheldon, 1983, pp.481-484, Modern Asian Studies

[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabunakama

[16] https://www.kimonoboy.com/sarasa.html

[17] https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/history/Itowappu.html

[18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabukimono

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