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Three Centuries of Japanese Women Artists: Triumphing Over Real Odds
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13536 |
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THE ARTS
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4 / 1988 |
2,293 Words |
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Patricia Fister
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A unique combination of political, social, and economic factors in Japan led to the flourishing of women artists during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, despite the fact that women's position in Japan's patriarchal society was theoretically very low. Women artists came from diverse segments of society, worked in many schools and traditions, and created artworks displaying a wide range of styles. They earned the plaudits of their peers and were important figures in both literary and artistic circles.
The reasons for the increase of women artists during the Edo period (1600-1868) are manifold. After nearly a century of civil war, Japan was enjoying an age of peace and prosperity. As affluence spread to the middle and lower classes, new patrons and new schools of art developed. Women's participation in art and literature was also abetted by the spread of education; the growth of private and clan schools stimulated learning and literacy among all classes. Women who were educated were more likely than others to move beyond the socially approved roles of wife and mother.
Traditional Roles
Most of the women who broke away from traditional roles and achieved recognition as artists were members of the non-aristocratic classes. This is not to say that women from the court or upper-ranking samurai families were not gifted. There were a number of outstanding noblewomen artists, but they were outnumbered by those who led less restricted lives.
Women were active in several ateliers, but were most prominent in those of the Kano school and ukiyo-e artists. Kiyohara Yukinobu (1643-1682) was the most celebrated woman painter working in the Kano school tradition. She was the daughter of Kusumi Morikage, a leading Kano school master. He must have encouraged Yukinobu's artistic talents and permitted her to adopt this male-dominated vocation. As a professional Kano painter, Yukinobu was trained in the academic Chinese styles used for painting landscapes, flowers and birds, and figures. She was also adept in the decorative Japanese style known as yamato-e, which was traditionally used for rendering narrative tales or portraits.
Yukinobu's range was diverse, including Buddhist deities like the apsara in plate 2. This type of flying divinity is usually shown hovering around a Buddha, which suggests that this painting may originally have been part of a triptych. Yukinobu's apsara descends amid swirling clouds, arms outstretched in preparation to strike a musical note. The celestial deity is garbed in robes decorated with intricate gold brocade patterns, rendered with the sensitivity and precision that won Yukinobu public acclaim.
Because of the relative freedom of behavior in the urban pleasure quarters, ukiyo-e artists tended to be more receptive to having female apprentices than were traditional art workshops. Among the many women ukiyo-e artists who achieved a degree of success were Yamazaki Ryu-jo, Katsushika Oi, and Kakuju-jo. Mirroring the interests of their clientele, they focused their attention on life in the amusement quarters, taking as their subjects kabuki actors and courtesans. Ryu-jo, also known as Joryu, was the daughter of a samurai serving the shogunate in Edo (now Tokyo). Most of her known paintings depict fashionable courtesans such as the example in plate 9 (see Gallery section). The theme of
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