Utamaro | Key Block Print, Two Beauties: Naniwaya Okita & Ofuji
喜多川歌麿 Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)
校合摺：难波屋阿北&柳屋阿
Key Block Print: Two Beauties: Naniwaya Okita & Ofuji
1793-94
木版画 | 纵绘大判 | 35cm x 25cm
Woodblock-print | Oban tate -e | 35cm x 25cm
整体品相完好；轻微修剪；中间折痕；几处虫洞；罕见
Slight trimming and centerfold; a few wormholes, otherwise in good condition; rare.
$3,500
The process for creating Japanese woodblock prints was as fascinating and creative as it was time-consuming and precise. It was a painstaking system requiring countless manhours to create a single print. And here we see a remarkable remnant of that long-ago process.
First, the wonderful design. This “key block print” comes from Utamaro’s lovely “Two Beauties: Naniwaya Okita and Ofuji,” printed in 1793-94. You can see the completed work here. It shows Ofuji of Yōjiya, on the right, in a cotton robe printed with ginkgo leaf motifs and Okita, on the left, who seems to be sharing a scroll with her companion. Like much of the master’s work, it is exquisite in its simplicity and elegance, with a smooth undercurrent of eroticism.
But how did it come to be? That’s where this rare print comes in.
Utamaro would draw his design on thin paper and write various instructions on it, such as what colors to use and where. This was the manner followed by all Ukiyoe artists, and it shows a remarkable capacity for them to imagine their finished works from the moment of conception.
A skilled carver would then affix Utamaro’s drawing to a piece of cherrywood and then cut away everything but Utamaro’s lines. These lines would be inked, and then pressed into paper from behind with a circular bamboo device called a “baren.” The result was the key block print.
Several of these would then be printed on thin paper and affixed to their own blocks of cherrywood, and then cut, with one block used for each color. Using the color blocks plus the key block print of the lines resulted in the finished product.
These key blocks prints were never intended to be preserved. And the ones used to create the color blocks were designed for the specific purpose of being destroyed; I suppose you could say they gave their lives for art.
But somehow, this one survived against all odds.
Now it is a rare opportunity to own a possibly unique piece of Ukiyoe history.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
喜多川歌麿 Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)
校合摺：难波屋阿北&柳屋阿
Key Block Print: Two Beauties: Naniwaya Okita & Ofuji
1793-94
木版画 | 纵绘大判 | 35cm x 25cm
Woodblock-print | Oban tate -e | 35cm x 25cm
整体品相完好；轻微修剪；中间折痕；几处虫洞；罕见
Slight trimming and centerfold; a few wormholes, otherwise in good condition; rare.
$3,500
The process for creating Japanese woodblock prints was as fascinating and creative as it was time-consuming and precise. It was a painstaking system requiring countless manhours to create a single print. And here we see a remarkable remnant of that long-ago process.
First, the wonderful design. This “key block print” comes from Utamaro’s lovely “Two Beauties: Naniwaya Okita and Ofuji,” printed in 1793-94. You can see the completed work here. It shows Ofuji of Yōjiya, on the right, in a cotton robe printed with ginkgo leaf motifs and Okita, on the left, who seems to be sharing a scroll with her companion. Like much of the master’s work, it is exquisite in its simplicity and elegance, with a smooth undercurrent of eroticism.
But how did it come to be? That’s where this rare print comes in.
Utamaro would draw his design on thin paper and write various instructions on it, such as what colors to use and where. This was the manner followed by all Ukiyoe artists, and it shows a remarkable capacity for them to imagine their finished works from the moment of conception.
A skilled carver would then affix Utamaro’s drawing to a piece of cherrywood and then cut away everything but Utamaro’s lines. These lines would be inked, and then pressed into paper from behind with a circular bamboo device called a “baren.” The result was the key block print.
Several of these would then be printed on thin paper and affixed to their own blocks of cherrywood, and then cut, with one block used for each color. Using the color blocks plus the key block print of the lines resulted in the finished product.
These key blocks prints were never intended to be preserved. And the ones used to create the color blocks were designed for the specific purpose of being destroyed; I suppose you could say they gave their lives for art.
But somehow, this one survived against all odds.
Now it is a rare opportunity to own a possibly unique piece of Ukiyoe history.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
喜多川歌麿 Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)
校合摺：难波屋阿北&柳屋阿
Key Block Print: Two Beauties: Naniwaya Okita & Ofuji
1793-94
木版画 | 纵绘大判 | 35cm x 25cm
Woodblock-print | Oban tate -e | 35cm x 25cm
整体品相完好；轻微修剪；中间折痕；几处虫洞；罕见
Slight trimming and centerfold; a few wormholes, otherwise in good condition; rare.
$3,500
The process for creating Japanese woodblock prints was as fascinating and creative as it was time-consuming and precise. It was a painstaking system requiring countless manhours to create a single print. And here we see a remarkable remnant of that long-ago process.
First, the wonderful design. This “key block print” comes from Utamaro’s lovely “Two Beauties: Naniwaya Okita and Ofuji,” printed in 1793-94. You can see the completed work here. It shows Ofuji of Yōjiya, on the right, in a cotton robe printed with ginkgo leaf motifs and Okita, on the left, who seems to be sharing a scroll with her companion. Like much of the master’s work, it is exquisite in its simplicity and elegance, with a smooth undercurrent of eroticism.
But how did it come to be? That’s where this rare print comes in.
Utamaro would draw his design on thin paper and write various instructions on it, such as what colors to use and where. This was the manner followed by all Ukiyoe artists, and it shows a remarkable capacity for them to imagine their finished works from the moment of conception.
A skilled carver would then affix Utamaro’s drawing to a piece of cherrywood and then cut away everything but Utamaro’s lines. These lines would be inked, and then pressed into paper from behind with a circular bamboo device called a “baren.” The result was the key block print.
Several of these would then be printed on thin paper and affixed to their own blocks of cherrywood, and then cut, with one block used for each color. Using the color blocks plus the key block print of the lines resulted in the finished product.
These key blocks prints were never intended to be preserved. And the ones used to create the color blocks were designed for the specific purpose of being destroyed; I suppose you could say they gave their lives for art.
But somehow, this one survived against all odds.
Now it is a rare opportunity to own a possibly unique piece of Ukiyoe history.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)
Is there a line more elegant, more evocative, more sensual than the subtle curve that magically evokes the face or figure of a beautiful woman as drawn by Kitagawa Utamaro?
She can be a concubine or a mother or anything in between, in an elaborate kimono or a casual yukata with a glimpse of exposed breast, yet in this master’s hands, her every emotion and mood is captured with a smooth simplicity never equaled.
In all of Ukiyoe, Utamaro was the undisputed master of the beautiful woman -- or bijin -- print, and his works in and of themselves constitute a golden age of the Japanese woodblock art. He was born in 1753, just as the form came into its own, and died in 1806.
He first produced actor prints in the style of Shunsho, but quickly adjusted his focus to beautiful women in the style of Kiyonaga. He mastered both face and full-figure portraits – always slender and graceful -- and showed a sly talent for erotic prints: his are often sexy without being overly explicate. He also produced dozens of books and was something of a lively character in the great Edo social whirl of those days, known around town for his personality, joie de vivre and charm as much as for his talent.
In all he worked with about 60 publishers. He could capture a woman’s complex emotions simply by the angle of her almond-shaped eyes or the ripe shape of her slightly parsed lips. So many of these women seem as if from a dream, and as if they are lost in their own dreams; they appear to be simultaneously of this world and from another one that we mere mortals cannot begin to imagine.
And whereas sometimes having small children in Ukiyoe brings down a design’s value, in the case of Utamaro, who produced many, many prints of mothers and children, the opposite seems to be true.
He established his own school. In due time, as Ukiyoe became more and more colorful and, perhaps, decadent, Utamaro fell from favor. Late in his life he was briefly imprisoned for a print depicting the Hideyoshi Shogun with courtesans.
But his reputation grew to spectacular heights as the West discovered Japanese woodblock prints in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Partial citation: Highly Important Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books and Drawings, from the HENRI VEVER Collection: Part 1 (Sotheby & Co.; 1974). Marks, Andreas, Japanese Woodblock Prints, Artists, Publishers and Masterworks: 1680-1900 (Tuttle; 2010).