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Masterworks of Ukiyo-e
Early Painting
Beautiful second printing (1970) of this stunning collection of plates by Hiroahige (Famous Views seems to be the subtitle). Has creasing on corners of front cover from use, like new inside , no fading, a real beauty.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
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April 13, 2018
I'm apparently the first Goodreads user to rate and review this book, which is a little bit of pressure!
This is a decent guide to the early years of ukiyo-e, a uniquely Japanese, phenomenally gorgeous, form of woodblock art. The book has several dozen full-color plates, with commentary on each piece of art. The selection of ukiyo-e is good. The authors chose pieces that are emblematic of the period, allowing the reader to pick out common motifs between prints. At the same time, there is also a good variety of styles and techniques, to give a broader sampling of the art.
Although the artwork itself was excellent, I had two issues with the book. First, the layout of the book was a little strange, in that the commentary on each painting and the paintings themselves are printed separately. As in, there are 50 numbered paragraphs of artistic commentary in the first few pages of the book, followed by the 50 plates themselves, meaning you have to constantly flip back and forth if you want to read about the art. I assume this was done for some practical reason related to printing costs, but it was extremely annoying.
My second issue is that the commentary on each painting was actually a little vague and sparse. The author often focuses more on biographical information than commentary on technique. In the translator's note, Pomeroy mentioned that the original Japanese text assumed the reader had a high degree of familiarity with ukiyo-e art. This is probably the root of the problem. Pomeroy tries to fix this issue by providing extra contextual information in the introduction. This helps situate ukiyo-u in its historical context, but still gives very little information on the actual technical process of Japanese woodblock art.
This is a decent guide to the early years of ukiyo-e, a uniquely Japanese, phenomenally gorgeous, form of woodblock art. The book has several dozen full-color plates, with commentary on each piece of art. The selection of ukiyo-e is good. The authors chose pieces that are emblematic of the period, allowing the reader to pick out common motifs between prints. At the same time, there is also a good variety of styles and techniques, to give a broader sampling of the art.
Although the artwork itself was excellent, I had two issues with the book. First, the layout of the book was a little strange, in that the commentary on each painting and the paintings themselves are printed separately. As in, there are 50 numbered paragraphs of artistic commentary in the first few pages of the book, followed by the 50 plates themselves, meaning you have to constantly flip back and forth if you want to read about the art. I assume this was done for some practical reason related to printing costs, but it was extremely annoying.
My second issue is that the commentary on each painting was actually a little vague and sparse. The author often focuses more on biographical information than commentary on technique. In the translator's note, Pomeroy mentioned that the original Japanese text assumed the reader had a high degree of familiarity with ukiyo-e art. This is probably the root of the problem. Pomeroy tries to fix this issue by providing extra contextual information in the introduction. This helps situate ukiyo-u in its historical context, but still gives very little information on the actual technical process of Japanese woodblock art.
Displaying 1 of 1 review