宮崎友禅 | Miyazaki Yuzen as Genroku Komin and Wamono Bijin | 1688-1736 | Bijin #10

This post will be slightly different, more of an essay than Bijin post only due to the nature of the difference in thought between Western and European Art. The post endeavours to explore the fluid relationship between Japanese mediums, across different formats and styles of Japanese Fans. Also how the Human Figure came into this crossroads in Japanese Art and Miyazaki's lasting influence on KTC.

Miyazaki (1654-1736) was a prolific fan painter and creator of the Yuzen dying technique. His painting style was immensely popular and featured on a number of Kosode from the Genroku, Hoei, Shotoku and Kyohu periods (1688-1736). Miyazaki's fan designs or Yuzen-zome designs directly onto the surface of Kosode were popular with Kyoto Chonin by 1690.[1][2] This design process is now a staple design motif found on Kimono today. 

Miyazaki's popularised Fan motifs (1717) Nakamura Senya

Fans

The concept of the fan originates in Ancient Egypt 4000 years ago. Eventually these became widespread in China which in turn influenced Japanese fans. The first known use of Japanese fans ( Sensu | Fan | 扇子) comes from 600 CE, being greatly influenced by Chinese flat hand fans at the time made of feathers or paper in a flat oval shape, inspiring Uchiwa fans. In 800 CE, Japan invented the first folding fan, the Akomeogi ( 衵扇 ), named after the courtly attire of Akome ( Cover-over Layer | 袙 ).[3] The oldest existing Hi-ogi dating from 877 CE, which at the time was used by Shinto priests and male courtiers.[7] According to Chinese lore, the Japanese monk Chōnen ( ちょう然/奝然 | 938-1016) offered Hi-ogi ( 20 Hinoki strip folding fans | 桧扇) and 2 Kawahori-ogi ( Paper fans | 蝙蝠扇) to the Song emperor Zhao Jiong (939-997) in 988. In the 10th century, Folding fans were once again taken by Korean envoys to the Chinese to use to pay tribute to the Middle Kingdom. 

By this time, Sokutai and Junihitoe had become the fashionable Wamono dress style in the Japanese court, and Heian women popularised the painted folded fan as Akomeogi by taking the name from their skirts 4th dress layer.[7] Eventually by the late Heian and Kamakura period in Japan, folding fans were regulated by sumptuary legislation much like later Tokugawa sumptuary legislation on fabric imports, until by the 15th century when they became used by the Japanese public.[4][7] During the 1400's, Japan began to export Folding fans due to their popularity on the asian mainland, and presumably further afield with the arrival of Portuguese traders during the Nanbanjin trading period from the 1560's onwards.[6] Edo period (1600-1868) fans were made by one Komin, and decorated on one-side, mass market fans included both sides.[7] By the Meiji period, folding fans were a staple global fashion accessory and the height of European fashion between the Tudor and Victorian periods in the English courts to own one, with a particular resurgence amongst the Victorian middle classes after Japan opened up from Sakoku in the 1860's. In the modern day, it can take up to 87 craftspeople to make a single fan.[7]

The earliest folding fans or Hiogi, were made by combining together 5-20 multiple thin strips of Hinoki wood at 30 cm long called Mokkan ( [orig.] Wood Recording Tablets | 木簡 ) with tightly bound silk string, afixed to a paper background.[4][7] Highly decorative fans included many layers of decoration such as fans made by Komin and adorned with tassels. The flat design was often made by artist for a specific purpose or to reference a literary text for example onto paper and layered onto the wooden sticks. Some fans in the Heian era though were made to convey Waka poetry, as seen in the Tale of Genji, and was regarded as something of a feminine artform. According to legend, the shape was inspired by a Heimin who saw a bat unfurl its wings.[5]

Fans held many uses, including to show taste, send messages to other courtiers, signal warfare in battle, as weapons, toys, decorative art and to engage in court ritual. Shinto priests still use folding fans today in their ceremonies, and many performing arts such as Geisha and Kabuki still use folding fans as part of traditional ritual dances, using ivory, bone, mica, mother of pearl, sandalwood, or tortoise shell.[4] Folding fans are today considered a traditional Japanese handicraft by the goverment, such as the Hyakudate ( 100 Bamboo stick Fan ) made by Aiba of Kyoto, who have made their Uchiwa fans for 300 years.[6]

Figures in Fans

Human figures appeared on Fans in Japan in the same way as they appeared on Screens, Lacquerware and other decorative items, due to the backdrop gargantuan shifting financial geo-social politics of the Edo period, and the Japanese understanding of Art in contrast to its Western Counterpart.

"[A]rt and crafts are one in the same process, unlike in the West when during the Renaissance [Art & Craft] split under secularisation during the Enlightenment period through the rationalism (in the art world, nature) vs empiricism (mechanised) debates into Art (divine works of nature) and the lesser crafts (mechanical and hand labour work) in the Occident."[8]

In the century before Miyazaki, the human figure underwent vast changes in Japanese Art, including being included in public Japanese art full stop. This was mostly down to the fact that Japan went from being a Rice-Economy, to a Currency Economy from 1590-1660. As such, most art in the late Sengoku period was made for wealthy Kyoto Kuge who had different tastes, desires and needs than the Heimin who consumed Bijin-ga in the 1670s would have, the Kuge wanted devout Tosa depictions of good Buddhist figures, the Heimin of the 1590s to feed their children, so very little Azuchi-Momoyami art even carried human figures in them. This came from Classical Buddhist notions of beauty imported from the Asian mainland, which held that portraiture was a vain venture, such as idolatry in some Christian and Muslim traditions.[12] However Bijin-ga can be held to a be a classical Chinese genre begun in the 6th century by Chinese painters depicting women who wrote love poetry.[13]

Back to Japan, between 1598-1615, Tokugawa Ieyasu craftily devises his Stabilisation Policies to bring an end to the Sengoku Jidai, using stability to consolidate control over the patchwork fiefs and warlords of Japan and ensuring its continuation by creating a stable Japanese society and economy. This changed the nature of power structures in Japan. Suddenly, Kyoto was no longer the aspiring culture everybody looked up, but instead, Edo culture was the new rising popular culture. One such policy being Sankin Kotai (1635) which saw warlords uproot to Edo, Ieyasu's new defacto capital for 6 months annually, bringing all their money and retinue with them, which turned Edo from a fishing port into a wealthy city.[11]

Setting the stage for Bijin-ga (1624-1673)

Tagasode Byobu (c.1573-1615) Anonymous

Southern Barbarians Screen (c1600) Kano Naisen

By the 1620's, the warlords had become bored without any Hanazuka ( Nose Mounds | 鼻塚 ) to pile up. So instead, the bored Ronin took to handicrafts, becoming Machi-Eshi, who patronised the new artform Kabuki, and fraternised with the new religion, Christianity. With this, came a shift in the use of the human figure in Japanese art by the Kanei era (1624-1644) from dukkha-vessel to sentient two dimensional being.[14] This came at first in Byobu, with first the Tagasode and then Hikone Byobu, inspired in part by the Kano school's depictions drawn from the wealthy Nanbanjin trades.[9][10] Figures of the 1630s reflected the changing times with the growing middle Chonin classes buying art in which they appeared. Figures then shifted after Sakoku in 1639; as Japan reverted to its pre-contact identity and 'unique' national psyche when it closed its borders; with the Bakufu more keen to promote Wamono than Nanbanjin affairs both to prevent further Kirishitan conversions and to reenergize the domestic Japanese economy. 'Japanese' Beauty in the arts became more valuable than Korean or Portuguese forms, and instead the rise of the conservative Buddhist Tosa figure which used the figure as was found in Yamato-E Fuzokuga became more socially acceptable, in lieu of the flashy Kano school depictions which drew on the Nanbanjin trade for their inspiration.[14]

[14]

Image taken from the Hikone Byobu (c1624-1639) Anonymous

 ta

The Four Earthly Pleasures (c1624-1644) Iwasa Matabei

During the Shoho era (1644-1648), the human figure underwent an appraisal under the guiding hand of Iwasa Matabei, who drawing on the Beauties Genre of Tang Chinese figure painting and the Kano school, but using the Tosa Yamato-E figure as a vehicle, created early Japanese high art using human figures.[14] Matabei's portraiture marked a shift in this appreciation of worldly forms from Buddhist Genre Painting into the figure as High or courtly art, and was depicted on Byobu as such.[13] By the late 1650s, Kakemono depicted early Bijin, prominently in Shikomi-e or images of young half-dressed androgynous figures.[14] It was the push for Japanese Bijin which saw the growth of the pleasure quarters and patronage of these by Chonin and Heimin. In 1666 with the publishing of Asai Ryoi's Ukiyo Monogatari, the Ukiyo genre or worldly pleasures genre mostly enacted by the new Chonin middle classes came into vogue. Ukiyo-e being the brainchild of the Komin-Chonin relationship, producing newly publicly available hedonistic and androgynous Shikomi-e Bijin-ga and later Yakusha-E prints. 

Matsuura Byobu (c.1630-1650) Unknown

Kambun Bijin (1661-1673) Anonymous

BeautyLooking Back (c1672-1686) Hishikawa Moronobu

By the Kambun period, early Bijin-ga as it is known had become an acceptable format to paint the human figure in, as Shikomi-E were deemed Ga ( Refined ) icons of Dancing Artisans (Geisha). Most production done for and by Chonin who increasingly merged High Brow Art (The Iwasa family, Tang China, Tosa, Kano) with Low Brow Content (Vanity Pictures), under the permissive nature of the times ; Shunga had begun to become explicit and was widely read for example.[14] These were simple Kosode which carried usually 2-3 colours max, and were displayed in the S-Shape Silhouette, often holding Mai-Ogi ( Dancers Fans ). The 1670's saw the widespread acceptance of Bijin-ga, extolled by Komin like Hishikawa Moronobu and Sugimura Jihei and their wealthy Chonin patrons who bought and commissioned these prints, paintings and Ogi designs commerating these beauties.

Fans on figures

View of Kyoto (c.1580-1585) Kano Motohide

TLiezi on a Cloud (1590-1599) Kano school

Fans operated themselves in these religious, aesthetical and then within Bijin-ga boundaries as well, as part of GKTC. This mostly reflects the main schools of though derived from Chinese aesthetical traditions, which in Japan were for the most part reflected in the Kano school by painters like Kano Motohide, and Kiyohara Yukinobu who painted human figures on fans in the early 17th century. Related to the huma figure which developed thus:

The religious figure had existed therefore for a longer time than pop culture iconography depicting human figures. This figure accompanied Buddhist texts as a pastime for the monks and writers who created Buddhist scriptures and texts and to allow the reader deeper connection with the subject material by placing human figures in the narrative. Over time, it became acceptable to have human figure Kakemono displayed in wealthy peoples homes as a sign of their devout faith by the early 17th century. [... T]he depiction of Heimin came in with the Tosa School and their Yamato-E Fuzokuga [... and in] Kyoto scenes depicting harmonious scenes of nature, Chinese philosophers and a whole lot of gold were more the Kano aesthetic in this pre-Sankin Kotai world. Pop culture as print media, simply did not have the demand required to profligate the idea of an established common beauty until the 1650s, as all demand was in the hands of the elite who required and expected different outcomes in their commissioned art pieces [of which the majority were E-maki]".[11]

"[After popular culture moved to Edo under] the enforcement of Sankin Kotai a brand new Japanese society with new expectations had formed as younger generations had more leisure time and greater stability than their elders."[11]

This popular culture is similar to Fans becuase fans were originally held by the Kano school to be venerable art objects. They went alongside the development of Bijin-ga as they were considered refined art objects, so from the Kanei-era they added credence to the Refined nature of the Wa Bijin ideal. For Heimin, Yamato-E allowed an 'in' for their presence and worlds to be depicted on fans as socially acceptable, as many Heimin although certainly aware of Confucius if they did well in Terakoya ( Heimin School | 寺子屋), were not themselves Chinese philosophers. The development of fans from the Kano school, who used Classical Chinese lore, may be considered due to the fact that a common motif of the Pining Chinese Beauties was to be found holding a hand fan, such as in Du Fu's (712-770) Ballad of the Beauty.[12][14]

Edo period Terakoya (1844-1848) Issunshi Hanasato

"This meant that classical, conservative and traditional appraoches to how beauty, vanity and inevitable human behaviour were codified to meet social and class structures of their day saw to it that the human figure in early 17th century western Kano depictions, whether on fans, screens or lacquer, were rare."[11]

As such, this was the world of fans which depicted Beauty and Beauties, before 1650. After 1650, fans had begun to made by the lower class Komin, again due to the shift in popular culture from Kyoto to Edo and with it the power of the Samurai-Komin relationship to the Chonin-Komin relationship to dictate popular culture on art.[11] This shift by 1661 was towards the Chonin world of worldly pleasures and we can pair this with the overall development of the Bijin from there directly to the Shikomi-E, which used fans as a way to bring the High Brow, to the Low Brow.[14]

Komin Codifying the Genroku Wamono Bijin

When in the Jokyo and Genroku era (1684-1704) Miyazaki contributed his Yuzen-zome technique, he often did this by painting on a number of fan designs as well, just the paper component though. This was done under the widespread acceptance and proliferation of wholly Komin Wamono that spread due to necessity under Sakoku which celebrated Japanese domestic art manufactures and handicrafts by the 18th century.[15] When Miyazaki began to add fan designs to his Kosode designs, including in his 1688 Yuzen Hinagata book on Kosode design, he popularised the Ogi in both ode to past aesthetical ideals and towards the tolerant and exciting new climate around him which Kosode design was undergoing. Whilst fans in particular had been used before Miyazaki, he popularized the trend for fan designs on Kosode after 1690, which after 1639 had taken on on the overtones of Sakoku necessity to redefine 'Japaneseness' or by undergoing a Wamono reappraisal.[15]

Miyazaki therefore whilst not depicting the Bijin, contributed to Bijin-ga and KTC by creating the clothes which Beauties were seen in. His High-Brow-Low-Brow Harkening was a major component of Komin practice, which realistically was more Yamato-E than the Kuge could ever hope to be in their ivory and gold castles, for they repersented trends felt and worn by the Heimin and Chonin, or commonfolk and townspeople themselves as products of the new Tokugawa Japan.[2][11][14][15] Thus Miyazaki codifies JKTC fashion in a more succinct way, as the Machi-Eshi did in the early 17th century before him, codifying what it meant to be a Wamono Bijin instead of the Chinese derived equivalent pushed by the Kano school, or the Classcial Heian depictions of the Tosa.[14][15] In context therefore, we see how as cultural markers, Komin like Miyazaki Yuzen contributed more to the 'Japaneseness' of the Wamono Bijin, than most courtiers of his time ever did among the masses.

Bibliography

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyazaki_Y%C5%ABzen

[2] See Essay #8

[3] For the Akome Layer see https://www.iz2.or.jp/english/fukusyoku/wayou/index.htm

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_fan#Japanese_hand_fan

[5] https://japan-avenue.com/blogs/japan/japanese-folding-fans-history

[6] https://japanobjects.com/features/japanese-fans

[7] https://becos.tsunagujapan.com/en/kyo-sensu-fans/

[8] See The Artisans in Essay #8

[9] See Essay #9

[10] See 17th century in Appreciation Timeline

[11] See Bijin #8

[12] See The Changing Japanese Figure in Bijin #6

[13] See Bijin #7

[14] See Bijin #1

[15] See Phases of popularity in Essay #9 and Essay #8

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) ; Genroku Komin and Wamono Bijin 

Torii Kiyonobu (active 1688 - 1729) [Coming Soon]

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

Kaigetsudo Ando (active 1700-1736) [Coming Soon]

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

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

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

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]

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

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

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

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]

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

Kitao Shigemasa (active 1765-1820) [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]

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

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

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

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]

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

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

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

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袈裟 | Kesa | Vestment Patches | Patterns #10

Kesa are a type of Buddhist monks Kasaya ( robes | Kesa |  袈裟 ) which in Japan are usually orange, black or navy.[1] Wandering monks however, have on another Mantle layer which often uses a pattern which at times resembles rows of quilting in the West. The number increases depending on the rank of the monk from 5-25. The use of Kesa ranges from simply to keep warm, to befittingly expensive textile art used to express complex meaning related to Buddhist teaching. It is said the geometric squares and their simple layout represent the ability of all beings to be liberated from dukkha in evoking the geometric placement of Mandala (see Bhavacakra).[3][4] It is said these 4 corner squares represent the Shi-Tenno ( 4 Heavenly Kings | 四天王 ) who run the Buddhist cosmos.[3]

Monks Kesa (c.700 CE, PD) Kyoto National Museum

Historically Buddhism came to Japan around 552 CE.[2] Kasaya were worn at this time, and in the Heian period due to the Japanese climate, Kesa began to be worn. These were made from dark cloth to mark the movement away from domestic into monastic life and made using rags and natural dyes made from plants. Down the centuries, Kesa became known as Buddhist garments, and became more elaborate, evidenced by the gold brocade used to make Edo period (1615-1868) Kesa donated by leading Chonin and other elites.[3] Kesa continue to be worn today as what is effectively a Monks uniform entry into the world of Buddhism.

#11 will be Kara-ori.

Bibliography

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasaya_(clothing)

[2] https://asiasociety.org/education/buddhism-japan#:~:text=Traveling%20along%20this%20route%2C%20Mahayana,several%20volumes%20of%20Buddhist%20text)

[3] https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/kesa-robes-of-patched-perfection 

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

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誰袖屏風 | Tagasode Byobu | 1550-1750 | Essay #9

This essay will explore the art motif known in Japanese art as Tagasode Byobu ( Whose sleeves Screen |  誰袖屏風 ) This motif is a recurring art form which was particularly popular during the Azuchi-Momoyama era ( 安土桃山時代 | 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.[1] Prior to this, Kin Byobu ( Golden Screens | 金屏風 ) for the most part depicted nature like Sesshuu Touyou (1420-1506) after Chinese Cha'an painter Muxi ( 牧谿 | 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.[2][3]

Bamboo / Wood Stand Tagasode Byobu (c.1625, PD) Anonymous

Tagasode as a folding screen motif specifically refers to the reoccurring appearance of Kosode who belong to a mystery owner on their Byobu. Most of these are often draped across Ikou ( Clothing Stand | 衣桁 ) used to display the entirety of a trendy and wealthy womans Kimono. A number of these stands whilst decorative can also be important in the telling of the composition of the piece, being made of Bamboo or Ebony Lacquer, and often spread out in the Byobu.[1] This spread out composition is part of Zen Buddhism aesthetic thought that we should treat ourselves as one with the natural world rather than seperate. 

The lack of human figures in Tagasode Byobu comes from the Japanese understanding of Buddhist art. The human in Japanese art at this point was heavily limited to portrayals of appropriate depictions of religious and powerful figures of mostly classical, mythical and pious affiliation.[2] Their owner is therefore not present, and instead the onus is on the viewer to assume certain things about the owner in the viewers own mind, rather than stating a definitive version of the owner. This is were the split of European and Japanese aesthetical composition comes into play, as the Occidental or European framework to these Byobu may often be egological, rather than following the Zen teaching of 'Not-Two'.[4][5] Some in the Nezu musuem though do depict human figures, but this is abnormal.[8]

Flowers and Birds of the Four Seasons Kin Byobu (c.1589) Kano Eitoku

'Tagasode' originates from the phrase:

色よりも - 香こそあはれと - おもほゆれ - 誰が袖ふれし - 宿の梅ぞも 

Iro yorimo - ka koso aware to - omohoyure - tagasode fureshi - yado no ume zomo 

More colour - Than perfume - Primarily - Whose sleeves hang - In the plum tree at the inn [6]

This phrase comes from the Kokin Wakashuu ( Ancient & Modern Waka Poetry | 古今和歌集) which was written in 905 CE. The poem refers to the hanging sleeves of an absent woman, who often holds the connotation of being especially beautiful and thus is missed. The poem evokes this idea by pointing to the presence of her lingering colourful hanging sleeves, and wafting perfume from the Ikou which evokes her absence.[6] It is these lingering elements which the viewer is supposed to piece together to remind them of the beautiful woman who owns them.[7]

Between 1100-1400, wealthy women increasingly had a larger number of Kimono. As such, rules began to made about the best way to organise, store and present these Kimono. Ikou as such then became popular and standard wardrobe accessories by the 1500s, and images of these or Ikou-Ga ( Clothing Stand Pictures | 衣桁画) also became part of wealthy household decor, which would have stood alongside literal Ikou to showcase all of a wealthy womens', particularly bridal, Kimono. These stands were used to showcase Kosode in the Onna Shorei Shuu ( Womens' Etiquette Anthology | 女諸礼集 | 1660 ) which shows Bridal Kosode with the Ikou arrangement in the Fukinuki yatai ( Blown-off Roof | 吹抜屋台) Yamato-e diagonal perspective style.

Onna Shorei Shuu Tagasode (1660, PD) Anonymous, NYPL

By the Jokyo era (1684-1688), the Tagasode Byobu rarely appeared as the Ikou Byobu ( Clothing Stand Screen | 衣桁屏風 ) which was a conventional item in a womens wedding ceremony. This was illustrated in accordion Sumizuri-E Etiquette Encyclopedias for women between 1687-1750. Tayuu and some Yujo had begun to also have Tagasode painted for them as a tradition handed down from military wives of the Sengoku Jidai (c1570) who used Tagasode as way of exerting their influence, much as the Chonin now did to expand their own market appeal.[1] 

By the 18th century however, Tagasode Byobu were owned or created by art connoisseurs who wished to reflect back on Japanese art, and Byobu will often at times have Inception Byobu as there are Screens painted on Screens with Tagasode slumped over them. This reflected their owners refined taste, art knowledge and also their wealth to have owned these classical Japanese masterpieces. Tagasode continued over onto lacquerware, Kosode and Kimono into the Meiji period. About 40 examples (from c.1550-1725) were known to exist in 2009, with the term being a recognised term as a genre of Byobu since around 1911. 

Kyoto and the Machi-Eshi

A majority of the Tagasode Byobu were created by wealthy elites for other wealthy elites. Kyoto was the largeest site of production for Tagasode, and these were created or requested by the wealthy wives of Daimyou or Kuge who had the money to gold-leaf everything. Due to their cost, a large number of Kin-Byobu were made as wedding gifts and may have served to reduce the expense of buying and producing the garments depicted instead. Byobu could be used indoors to create space and dimension to a room, or to tell a story. Some screens were also used outside during parties.[1]

Their creators are mostly Anonymous Machi-Eshi ( Town Painters | 町絵師 ) who migrated away from the court to places like Sakai after their separation from established patronage from the Imperial court, Shogunate and Temples during the Sengoku Jidai.[1][10] Early painters followed the lead set by Eitoku, and their pupils like Hasegawa Touhaku ( 長谷川 等伯 | 1539-1610 ) the founder of the Rinpa School created the atmosphere at court and at large to recieve Kin Byobu as Wamono. These then became presumably sought after items by women who used literature to connect their worldly belongings to Buddhist aesthetical philosophy, requesting Town Painters like Tawaraya Sōtatsu (c.1570-1640) or their apprentices to paint the Tagasode Byobu.[10]

Phases of popularity

Milhaupt describes how there are 3 historical periods of the Tagasode Byobu, the First being the Bamboo Stand group, made presumably during the Momoyama period (1573-1615) in which a Bamboo stand will be present. The Second being the Instrument group, made presumably during the Matabei era (1625-1650) in which musical instruments are present alongside lacquer Ikou. The Third group being the Profuse group, made later on (1650-1725) in which a larger number of Kosode are present on the Ikou racks than in the other 2 groups.[1] The Profuse Group often uses more items to give a sense of depth than the Bamboo or Instrument Group, and their reason to exist was usually more so to focus on their owners 'taste' rather than just their wealth.

Bamboo Group Era Tagasode (c.1615, PD) Anonymous

Kosode were depicted on Byobu for numerous reasons. The initial use of Tagasode Byobu would have been for wealthier military wives to showcase their vast number of Kimono in wealth displays to their social peers who would've visited their homes during the Sengoku Jidai in a way to both flaunt their wealth and their ability to power project unto other visiting Daimyou that their own fiefs vast wealth could afford to provide such luxurious accommodations to the lady of the land in wartime. These are for the most part Milhaupt's Bamboo Group.

See http://burkecollection.org/catalogue/221-tagasode-whose-sleeves for Instrument Group    

See https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24858/lot/2076/ for Profuse Group

Later Byobu would have been more likely a trend followed by Tayuu and Yujo in their copying of these wealthy women's interior decorating tips, to showcase their own value and to peacock, as the Instrument Group. This is seen to have trickled down to some wealthy Chonin patrons who also had their own Tagasode Byobu made for their wives weddings. Some Tagasode were also used as a way for Chonin to sell Kosode in their stores, to promote the work of their Kimono weavers as well in a kind of late 17th century Chonin promotional sales tactic.[1] The later Tagasode Byobu which are extant and fall into a greater appreciative Wamono phase in Japanese art under Sakoku which see a revitalisation and appreciation of 'Japanese' art, and thus revisits a lot of the first 2 groups, being the Profuse group which operates under the Iki phase the Genroku era was then undergoing.[11]

Contextually, we can see how Tagasode Byobu developed from an initial need to exhibit soft-power in the face of hard power for the wives of the military elites of the Sengoku Jidai. This later became a motif which was adopted and born from the patronage of the Machi-Eshi to wealthy ladies, primarily in Kyoto who used these to display their ongoing soft-power in the forthcoming era of Stabilisation Policy pushed by the Tokugawa authorities. This trickled down by the early Edo period, to the Chonin who adopted Tagasode due to its high art status and used it as a way to advertise their own businesses, much like the soft-power projection of Sengoku military wives. By the Kambun era, this reflected the Ikou-ga Byobu of the Muromachi period once more as the country was in peacetime, and this was continued when Inception Tagasode became the popular norm by the 18th century when Tagasode reflected the Machi-Eshi painter tradition of depicting the Tagasode motif. 

Present existing examples currently reside in the Idmitsu Museum of Arts (出光美術館蔵 ), the Nezu Museum (根津美術館蔵), Suntory Museum of Arts (サントリー美術館), Sen-Oku Hakukokan (泉屋博) Museum in Japan and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Burke Collection in the West. These existing works hold particular interest to those interested in the Momoyama and Early Edo period, as they tell us about the popular or at the least what the wealthy were wearing and how they wished to present themselves in their Kosode such as fans, stripes and florals. Tagasode thus in context reveal when new techniques and trends may have been created or popularised again amongst the wealthy and also show us how their owners used Kosode and Tagasode to exhibit wealth, their artistic merits, to attract clients and how to project power into the world around them and to their social circles.

For more examples, see:

http://burkecollection.org/catalogue/221-tagasode-whose-sleeves (c.1600)

https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/109899 (c.1600)

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/japanese-edo-period-whose-sleeves-tagasode-painting-with-waves-of-matsushima-screen (c.1700)

Bibliography

[1] Interiors Imagined: Folding Screens, Garments, and Clothing Stands, Terry Satsuki Milhaupt, 2009, metmuseum.org (Accessed 27/11/2021) | https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fold/hd_fold.htm

[2] See Bijin #1

[3] Japanese Kinbyobu: The Gold Leafed Folding Screens of the Muromachi Period (1333-1573) P. II-IV, Bettina Klein, Carolyn Wheelwright, 1984, Vol. 45,  pp.101-102, Artibus Asiae Publishers

[4] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/egology

[5] See Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy, '5.3 Zen’s Meaning of Not Two', Anonymous, 2006[2019], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Accessed 27/11/2021) |  https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/japanese-zen/

[6] http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/t/tagasode.htm

[7] https://patrons.org.es/kyoto-capital-of-artistic-imagination/

[8] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2014/11/06/arts/openings-in-tokyo/tagasode-screens-kimono-painting-theme/

[9] http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/m/machieshi.htm

[10] https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/109899

[11] See 'Iki' in Glossary & 'Sumptuary Laws (1604-1685)' in Bijin #3

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西陣織 | Nishijin Ori | Nishijin Silk Weave | Fabrics #9

Nishijin Ori is the fabric woven by weavers originally as a thick silk textile in the area of Nishijin in Western Tokyo which is one of the most common secondhand textiles in Japan today due to its proliferation as a textile. You may most commonly see Nishijin-Ori not on Kimono, but on Wamono as the little gold embellished textiles you see on everything from Kakemono backgrounds, traditional Architectural Embellishments to the modern remake shops which often use old Nishijin-ori Obi to make garments which require stiffer structured textiles such as womens handbags, table runners and curtains.

Nishijin-Ori Fukuro Obi (2009, CC3.0) Ichiro Wada of Ichiroya

The designs of Nishijin-Ori have long been cross-cultural. Nishijin patterns have long been influenced by textiles from other cultures such as China, Europe and the Middle East, just as Sarasa Chintz was with India.[6] You can see this is in Veludo, which Japanese weavers were influenced by circa the 16th century Portuguese Nanban trade in Velvet, which is found in some Edo Nishijin Kimono weaves. Nishijin Ori designs are thus considered to have reached their peak in luxury around the early Edo period therefore.[2] Modern designs often include patterns and designs from all around the world, although Ancient Egypt is often also easily found.

Nishijin Donsu Textile Sample (c1750-1860) Unknown

Nishijin ori is made first having your pattern, as the weft threads need to be dyed before weaving begins, which is called Itozome-Ori (Thread Dyeing | 糸染え). The stretched warp and weft threads overlap, being woven upside down in the Omeshi ( Chirimen thick weave | お召し) style which leaves a bumpy texture, historically on a Takahata loom.[2]  The textile is used to make patterns which make use of dyes in the weaving process, rather than dying afterwards.[1] The threads are very thick, so they last a long time. Around 12 different styles such as Kara-Ori (Chinese Weave | 唐織) and Donsu (Satin Weave | 緞子) have been officially recognised by the Japanese Government as Culturally Important.[3] Nishijin is today made on an automated digital loom. 

Historically, Nishijin has its origins in China, coming to Japan by 499, most likely coming with the Chinese-Korean Hata Clan.[2][4][5] By 794 the Nara court began increasing their demand for silk textiles, leading to more weavers and greater refinements in the establishment of Nishijin-Ori as a Japanese textile used to make Junihitoe.[2][5] In the 14th century, Noh began to become popular with the court. This is also increased the need for silk weavers and the industry branched out into the production of costumes in the Kara-Ori style as well as court garment Kimono.[2] During the Onin War (1467-1477), local workers dispersed to flee the violence of the Western and Eastern factions of Japanese warlords to Sakai. They returned by 1478 to the Western 'Nishijin' fort, then the Western warlord headquarters which is where the name Nishijin comes from. During the 17th century, Nishijin began to be used as a common cloth used for making womens Kimono. In 1872, the Takahata was replaced by the Jacquard loom.[2] Nishijin was recognised as a traditional craft in 1976.[1] A large amount of the industry today is also found in art preservation and textile conservation.

The next fabric series post will be on Benibana Dye and its use as fabric in KTC.

Bibliography

[1] https://www.world.jal.co.jp/world/en/guidetojapan/detail/index.html?spot_code=nishijinori

[2] Begin Japanology : Nishijin-Ori, Peter Barakan, 2009, Season 2, Episode 1, NHK

[3] https://db2.the-noh.com/edic/2018/03/donsu.html

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

[5] See Fabric series #3

[6] See Regulation of Foreign Trade (1615-1640) section on Bijin #3 post

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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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ひがき/網代 | Higaki/Ajiro | Basket-Weave | Patterns #9

The Higaki/Ajiro ( without-net ) pattern is a geometric series of tilted rectangles layed out like a paved path. Supposedly, the pattern is meant to allude to a fence, or basket-weave made from Hinoki ( Cypress | 檜 ), a common Japanese wood which is easily pliable, and is found on most a large range of Japanese textiles, popularly on wide Obi belts.[1][2] Higaki commonly refers to the Cryptomeria Cypress fence weave, Ajiro to the bamboo or wicker basket weave used originally in fishing baskets.[5][6] Ajiro weave is often reflective of the symbolism held by cypress wood, such as divine protection/purity, good health, longevity and good luck.

A Tea ceremony Periwinkle Series (1896) Mizuno Takeshita

(Note the screen in the center background which uses Higaki weave)

Hinoki wood came to prominence as aesthetically favoured under the Roju Hideyoshi (1537-1598) who sourced the wood from Kiso valley for his castles. At the time, the wood was considered highly valuable, and was associated with purity for its soft colours compared to darker grain patterns.[4] Ajiro weave is also commonly used in traditional woven Chaya ( Teahouses | 茶屋 ) design in Chashitsu ( Tea room | 茶室) and garden fences.[6] Hideyoshi helped popularise Chanoyu ( Tea Ceremony | 茶の湯), as seen in his elaborate portable Golden Tea Room ( Ōgon no chashitsu | 黄金の茶室) made from Gold, Cypress, Bamboo and silk.[7] Popular Aesthetics at this time pushed Wamono ( Japanese-style-things | 和物), which to the tea master Sen no Rikyu ( 千利休 | 1522-1591) in Chanoyu was Wabi-cha ( Forlorn-tea | 侘茶 ), a style which promoted simplicity.[8][9] This picked up on uniquely Japanese crafts like Hinoki weaving for its simple weave and use as a divine wood in Shinto architecture, and incorporated into Wabi-cha Chashitsu design. It is highly likely the design therefore became associated with the tea ceremony after the late Azuchi-Momoyama epoch (1568-1600) as a symbol of Japanese prosperity and luck, and worn on Kimono to celebrate Hinoki's symbolic transcendental omens. 

The pattern may have seen a surge in popularity when Kokutai rose to prominence once again for its noticeably 'Japanese' origins in the rejection of Chinese aesthetic values of Wabi-cha, in a time which by the 1860's-1890s was more-so encouraging of Japanese nationalism on the home islands. Higaki by the early 20th century was therefore considered auspicious and worn by Geisha in their performances.[3] The pattern is still commonly found today in many vintage Fukuro Obi, and is supposedly a popular pattern for use on white base Kimono.

Patterns #10 will be on Kesa.

Bibliography

[1] https://int.kateigaho.com/articles/tradition/patterns-13/

[2] https://www.wafuku.co.uk/glossary

[3] https://kelownaartgallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Geisha-to-Diva-Exhibition-Guide-official-1.pdf

[4] https://bartokdesign.com/wood/the-king-of-trees-hinoki.php

[5] https://polinacouture.com/en/the-meaning-of-patterns-on-japanese-fabrics/#diagonal-fence-higaki-or-ajiro

[6] https://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/a/ajiro.htm

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Tea_Room

[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_bamboo_weaving

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-cha

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