Catalogue of the Ukiyo-e exhibition!
Yeah, it's two posts in two days guys, and both of them refers to events of yesterday!! *fails*
This post is mostly for the use of my friend Barbara, who couldn't attend that ukiyo-e exhibition but was interested in the catalogue.
Here's a little review of the catalogue, that I managed to acquire yesterday during my Roman walk (together with the schedule of a film exhibition that I want to attend! YAY!)
First of all, I was delighted to know that it was possible to choose from three different covers.
Since I have a soft spot for tragic, "futile heroes", I went on and picked the one with Sugawara no Michizake turning into a kaminari >3
When I started to browse the booklet, I almost had an heart attack! WAS IT ALL WRITTEN STUFF?!!!
I have nothing against written stuff, but from a catalogue I'm expecting PICTURES, yanno XDD
I took a sigh of relief when the pictures were there indeed.
The pages before were just an introduction to the various themes that the exhibition was focused on.
I'll talk a bit about the prints featured in the exhibition, at least those that piqued my interest!
This first print show you the two rivals Horiguchi Man'emon and Kizu no Kansuke from a popular kabuki show first played in Osaka.
I don't agree with the description of the action.
The commenter says that Man'emon has an offensive stance and Kansuke a defensive one... For me Kansuke just attacked Man'emon, who avoided Kansuke's lunge by raising his feet and is now about to attack him in answer... But that's just my opinion as a comic maker XD --What do you think :D ?
The cool feature of this print, though, is its rendition of rain. Do you see how the 'drops' are light coloured on a dark background color and turn dark coloured on a light background color..?
Another print about a duel, featuring the characters Takumi and Tomohei.
I love how the stormy sea in the background adds to the tension between the two enemies!
An interesting bit about this print (and others, since it's a recurring pun)-- Tomohei is waiting for Takumi by a pine.
The Japanese word for pine is "matsu", that sounds like the verb for "waiting"... "To wait by a pine" sounds fun in Japanese, but also pretty evocative!
Kanamari Daisuke trying to save Fusehime from the dog that wants to marry her (the grey dog is almost merged with the figure of Fusehime).
There's not much to say about this print, I liked the idea of a dog claiming a princess, but mostly I really love the contrasts drawn by Fusehime's kimono *_*
Look Barbara! It's our friend Sen no Rikyu x'D !!
Here he's dressed as Monogusa Taro and acting as a spy to get secrets out of a courtesan!
This print is an example of a style that was super-popular back in the days... It consisted in presenting close-ups of popular actor in a circle that mimicked a mirror.
There were also some prints that definitely needed an explanation, otherwise they would have been impossible to understand XD
Here is one!
This is a touristic print about the Konpira temple in Yagenbori.
I challenge you to find how the image of the girl relates to the temple (that you can spot in that tiny circle at the left-top of the print)!
And here's another!
This from a series of prints dedicated to the Seven Gods of Fortune. This one rappresents Hotei.
Try to guess how the figure of the sewing servant relates to the God of happiness.
Ok, I stop bullying you guys XD
This print is interesting because it's printed on fabric.
It was used to sponsor the shop that produced that kind of pattern.
This is a portrait of the onnagata actor Sawamura Tannosuke III.
This print didn't pick my interest just because the bold background and the contrast with the blues of the main figure, but because of the transparent yukata that the boy is holding on his shoulder and -gasp!- the outageous tattoo on his back!
Now I'll have this image of the actor playing cute female roles but sporting a manly tattoed back for ever stuck in my mind!!!! *MUST DRAW!*
This is one of the masterpieces of Kuniyoshi, it's called "The Ink Battle".
It was a fun past-time of the old time's nobles.
In this print Kuniyoshi portrays modern samurais taking part in this frivolous and silly game, as to say that the current members of the samurai class got as vain as those of the old noble court.
Every now and then it's interesting to see a female character who's not destined to a tragic death because of her lover/father/brother's idiotic choices:
Here's a powerful portrait of Tomoe-gozen dealing with Yoshimori, who killed her husband.
Another portrait of a cool female character is that of Omatsu, who lives her life taking care of her many duties as a wife/mum, demon and bandit XD
Please note the detail of the kimono pattern:
Pretty cool, uh? Almost "mexican-flavoured" ^_^ !
Now-- A moment of attention--
--FOR THE EPIC BALLS OF THE TANUKI!
There was a whole genre dedicated to the "kintama". Seriously!
*cough*
I'll skip through the rest of the book to spend a few words on the extra rare prints dedicated to kids.
They were rare mostly because those were kind of "paper toys" that were supposed to be cut to be played with.
Here's a fun example:
Another popular genre, was that of "figurines"...
Here's a disturbing series of figurines dedicated to the famous suicide couples in popular kabuki drama...
...Kids were really interested in such things XD ..?
And here comes the end of this tiny -but I hope that you found it informative enough, review!
Originally posted at http://daeva-neesan.dreamwidth.org/551972.html
If you want, please comment there :3
This post is mostly for the use of my friend Barbara, who couldn't attend that ukiyo-e exhibition but was interested in the catalogue.
Here's a little review of the catalogue, that I managed to acquire yesterday during my Roman walk (together with the schedule of a film exhibition that I want to attend! YAY!)
First of all, I was delighted to know that it was possible to choose from three different covers.
Since I have a soft spot for tragic, "futile heroes", I went on and picked the one with Sugawara no Michizake turning into a kaminari >3
When I started to browse the booklet, I almost had an heart attack! WAS IT ALL WRITTEN STUFF?!!!
I have nothing against written stuff, but from a catalogue I'm expecting PICTURES, yanno XDD
I took a sigh of relief when the pictures were there indeed.
The pages before were just an introduction to the various themes that the exhibition was focused on.
I'll talk a bit about the prints featured in the exhibition, at least those that piqued my interest!
This first print show you the two rivals Horiguchi Man'emon and Kizu no Kansuke from a popular kabuki show first played in Osaka.
I don't agree with the description of the action.
The commenter says that Man'emon has an offensive stance and Kansuke a defensive one... For me Kansuke just attacked Man'emon, who avoided Kansuke's lunge by raising his feet and is now about to attack him in answer... But that's just my opinion as a comic maker XD --What do you think :D ?
The cool feature of this print, though, is its rendition of rain. Do you see how the 'drops' are light coloured on a dark background color and turn dark coloured on a light background color..?
Another print about a duel, featuring the characters Takumi and Tomohei.
I love how the stormy sea in the background adds to the tension between the two enemies!
An interesting bit about this print (and others, since it's a recurring pun)-- Tomohei is waiting for Takumi by a pine.
The Japanese word for pine is "matsu", that sounds like the verb for "waiting"... "To wait by a pine" sounds fun in Japanese, but also pretty evocative!
Kanamari Daisuke trying to save Fusehime from the dog that wants to marry her (the grey dog is almost merged with the figure of Fusehime).
There's not much to say about this print, I liked the idea of a dog claiming a princess, but mostly I really love the contrasts drawn by Fusehime's kimono *_*
Look Barbara! It's our friend Sen no Rikyu x'D !!
Here he's dressed as Monogusa Taro and acting as a spy to get secrets out of a courtesan!
This print is an example of a style that was super-popular back in the days... It consisted in presenting close-ups of popular actor in a circle that mimicked a mirror.
There were also some prints that definitely needed an explanation, otherwise they would have been impossible to understand XD
Here is one!
This is a touristic print about the Konpira temple in Yagenbori.
I challenge you to find how the image of the girl relates to the temple (that you can spot in that tiny circle at the left-top of the print)!
And here's another!
This from a series of prints dedicated to the Seven Gods of Fortune. This one rappresents Hotei.
Try to guess how the figure of the sewing servant relates to the God of happiness.
Ok, I stop bullying you guys XD
This print is interesting because it's printed on fabric.
It was used to sponsor the shop that produced that kind of pattern.
This is a portrait of the onnagata actor Sawamura Tannosuke III.
This print didn't pick my interest just because the bold background and the contrast with the blues of the main figure, but because of the transparent yukata that the boy is holding on his shoulder and -gasp!- the outageous tattoo on his back!
Now I'll have this image of the actor playing cute female roles but sporting a manly tattoed back for ever stuck in my mind!!!! *MUST DRAW!*
This is one of the masterpieces of Kuniyoshi, it's called "The Ink Battle".
It was a fun past-time of the old time's nobles.
In this print Kuniyoshi portrays modern samurais taking part in this frivolous and silly game, as to say that the current members of the samurai class got as vain as those of the old noble court.
Every now and then it's interesting to see a female character who's not destined to a tragic death because of her lover/father/brother's idiotic choices:
Here's a powerful portrait of Tomoe-gozen dealing with Yoshimori, who killed her husband.
Another portrait of a cool female character is that of Omatsu, who lives her life taking care of her many duties as a wife/mum, demon and bandit XD
Please note the detail of the kimono pattern:
Pretty cool, uh? Almost "mexican-flavoured" ^_^ !
Now-- A moment of attention--
--FOR THE EPIC BALLS OF THE TANUKI!
There was a whole genre dedicated to the "kintama". Seriously!
*cough*
I'll skip through the rest of the book to spend a few words on the extra rare prints dedicated to kids.
They were rare mostly because those were kind of "paper toys" that were supposed to be cut to be played with.
Here's a fun example:
Another popular genre, was that of "figurines"...
Here's a disturbing series of figurines dedicated to the famous suicide couples in popular kabuki drama...
...Kids were really interested in such things XD ..?
And here comes the end of this tiny -but I hope that you found it informative enough, review!
Originally posted at http://daeva-neesan.dreamwidth.org/551972.html
If you want, please comment there :3