layers of meaning

i have heard, and read, many different explanations of the many layers worn under kimono. the first thing i was told, years ago, was that it was a way of establishing status.

more recently i have heard that each layer has very particular meaning, as does the particular design, color, etc. i do not exaggerate when i say i haven't the foggiest.

today i read that the many layers was a fashion in the heian era, and then was revived during the edo era. this latter is when utamaro kitagawa made this print.

correct me if i'm wrong, but it seems to me that the only times we in the west have had a particular reason for wearing many layers, other than when it was cold, or we were escaping a pogrom in the dead of night wearing as much as we could, is when we wore many layers of petticoats, and then surely for 'decency,' but yes, probably fashion as well.

and perhaps the jokesters and pundits made wisecracks about the petticoats as they did about the layers; i wouldn't be surprised.

some info on this can be found in a discussion about a woman of the court, but obviously this is not a courtier but rather a courtesan. you can see by her hair ornaments, even if you didn't know the image was called The courtesan Imose of the Yoshiwara House.

and for the regency fashion plates, see cathy decker's fascinating pages. and pray these clothes never come back in style.

from Spring Day

Bath

The day is fresh-washed and fair,
and there is a smell of tulips and narcissus
in the air.

The sunshine pours in at the bath-room window and bores through the water
in the bath-tub in lathes and planes of greenish- white. It cleaves the water
into flaws like a jewel, and cracks it to bright light.

Little spots of sunshine lie on the surface of the water and dance, dance,
and their reflections wobble deliciously over the ceiling; a stir of my finger
sets them whirring, reeling. I move a foot, and the planes of light
in the water jar. I lie back and laugh, and let the green-white water,
the sun-flawed beryl water, flow over me. The day is almost
too bright to bear, the green water covers me from the too bright day.
I will lie here awhile and play with the water and the sun spots.

The sky is blue and high. A crow flaps by the window, and there is
a whiff of tulips and narcissus in the air.

--Amy Lowell

(mathews; mucha; will source others later)
[note: somehow the images disappeared from this post completely so i put them back. now the first ones will probably come back and there'll be two. i'll come back and fix it again.]

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost

(carl moll; kawase hasui; henri riviere --thanks for the reminder, green tea--; hiroshige ii utagawa)

can't jump, either

i never noticed this consciously before, but it seems white people haven't had much in the way of bold, colorful pattern in their textiles (other than perhaps scandinavia?) until exposure to the fabrics from japan. at least the ones in the prints.

i'm not crazy about raoul dufy's paint- ings; grandma dee had a print of one over her sofa and that seemed just about right. but when i discovered his fabric design recently i loved them! while these are slipping towards the fauve/matisse-y era of western art, they wouldn't have happened at all without the required inspiration.

perhaps these were completed during his early years, while he worked in a museum, before he really found his painting style. but for me they are some of the most wonderful fabric designs of the era, and i'm glad he did at least these.

gakutei yashima lived from 1788 to 1868. he was also a poet and often included his poems in his paintings.

that line

Lucien Achille Mauzan dropped his first name somewhere along the line and went by Achille. He was considered a master of zany caricature and shocking juxtapositions.

Strongly influenced by Cappiello, he obviously agreed with the latter's statement that "Surprise is the foundation of advertising; it is its necessary condition."

Mauzan was born on the French Riviera, but moved to Italy in 1905.

He made several important posters for the Italian film industry in Turin, and then went to work at Ricordi from 1912 to 1917.

He is known for his posters of the war, and afterwards he worked for the Maga agency in Milan, and then established his own company. He also taught, thereby establishing poster artists influenced by him!

Many of his greatest works were created in Argentina where he worked from 1926 to 1932. In all, Mauzan published over 2000 posters. They're not all available, but quite a few are. Little online talks about the man himself, but he at least is not lost to obscurity.

european cult of things japanese

the european cult of things japanese was more than a mere exotic fad, as the results were more far-reaching than those arising from a simple love of novelty.

fashion and its accessories acquired a new importance in europe though the general enthusiasm for japanese culture. women wore long, narrow skirts with flounces, which in outline closely resembled the obi.

people tripped around the streets of paris as if they had just stepped out of the yedda ballet--which had its first performance in 1879.



the formal way of moving the hands and feet and the kinked body posture, together with the costly kimono-like clothes of the ladies of the time, exuded a mysterious, magical aura of oriental sumptuousness.





far eastern modes were like an intoxicant. the moment of cultural balance, so to speak, between japan and europe had arrived. around 1900 women appeared in theatres with voluminous head adornments, decorative combs, hair-grips, and hairpins along japanese lines.

these would be set in tall coiffures, equally influenced by oriental theater, ballet and operetta. from japonisme, by siegfried wichmann





(edo comb; vever; edo comb; pinder, bourne, & co.; durand art glass, vineland flint glass works; edo-era comb; edo era comb; max kuehne.)

the begetting of beauty

and hokusai found a view of fuji at hodogaya with twisted trees and twisted men, all looking in different directions

and riviere saw trees this way after seeing hokusai

and lalique saw trees and dragonflies

and mucha saw sycamore leaves like dragonflies

and they both saw green women with green breasts and toothy wing-like projections coming from their shoulders

and thus seeds and insects and twisted beings became woven into the new beauty that this synthesis was creating.

p.s. mucha imagined the jewelry and fouquet made it.

looking at it from the other direction....

how do you see these woodblock prints, particularly when compared with the others i've posted (and i have posted the work of this artist before), or that you've seen elsewhere?

does it make any difference when you read this?: "Mitsukoshi Gonomi; Miyako no Nishiki" (Brocades of the Capital). "The Seasons and Their Fashions,No.8: Autumn. "A Walk to a Country-cottage". This series of 12 designs was commissioned by Mitsui Clothing Store. The Mitsui group (It has two well-known subsidiaries today. Mitsukoshi department store and Mitsui-Sumitomo Bank) was originated from the large dry goods store, Echigoya founded in 1673. It changed its name to "Mitsui Gofuku" in 1893. In order to promote its new image, they commissioned this delightful 12 family portraits to Toshikata. Mitsui Clothing Store changed its name again to "Mitsukoshi" in 1904. They made another edition, this time under the name "Mitsukoshi". The edition by "Mitsukoshi" was featured in the reference book of the Muller Collection.1

it's not an original question, i know, but i'll ask it anyway-- is art made for hire by a department store or bicycle manufacturer, less art than what's made for a samurai or king, or from one's heart?

the whole series is here.

i just realized what the question also is: do the japonese see these woodblock prints differently, knowing they were commissioned for trade?

and furthermore....

i just came across this quote and i thought it went along with the previous post so well that i thought i'd just put it up now, rather than waiting.

'one of the more recent phenomena typical of the present age, in which art and craft have become reunited after all too long a separation, is the modern bazaar of arts and crafts, an unusual combination resulting in a hybrid establishment, somewhere between an art dealer's and an emporium stocking luxury items as well as consumer goods of a practical nature, owned and run by people who usually represent a peculiar blend of connoisseur, artist, art critic, patron and businessman in the most refined sense of the word.' --max osborn, la maison moderne, 1900

the grace of questionable art

in addition to importing japanese paraphernalia into the newly emerging western art and design, aesthetical ethics were being affected as well.

when you think of toulouse lautrec, do you think 'commercial artist' or 'fine artist'? what about mucha? can he be called a 'real artist' if he primarily did 'posters'?




while i'm not really knowledgable about the present-day art scene, it seems to me that the worlds of 'commercial art' and 'fine art' are held at a conscious distance. but what of the past; has it always been true?







what about western painters who careers depended on patronage from the king? what was never painted, because it might upset the patron? in japan as well, what of these printmakers whose livelihood ended as the shogunate, source of many patrons, was dismantled?

we've discussed, here, earlier, the idea that that japanese infuse all they touch with the consciousness of art, so does this mean they made no such distinctions? and is this something that flowered in this era in the west as well?

(i have no artist names for these posters, but found them all, via bibliodyssey, here. just answer me one question, though: what does the congo have to do with the woman in the japanese costume, or the chinese hunters?)

krem de la krems

KREMS, AUSTRIA.- As its first major show of 2007, the Kunsthalle Krems presents an outstanding and comprehensive exhibit of Japanese art of the Meiji-era as well as European Japonism which followed in its wake. These two parallel phenomena are in the focus of attention of “Japan”, showcasing the incredible craftsmanship of Japanese Ukyo-e and applied arts while carving out its close ties to the roots of European and particularly, Austrian modernity. (more)

(painting by van gogh)

the rose

many people have heard of charles rennie mackintosh and why not? with his wondrous designs, from watercolor to architecture, we still thrill and delight to his work.

but fewer have heard of dard hunter, whose sweep was more narrow, perhaps, but no less profound.

i can find no record of the two ever having met, but we still see from both what is often called 'the scottish rose.' mackintosh was indeed scottish, but hunter was from ohio, and though he did study in europe, i also find no men- tion of him visiting scotland.

they both, however, worked in a time when artists the world over were learning to see in new, simplified ways from seeing the work of the japanese for the first time.

and, as you can see from this 1920s kimono, the japanese were learning back.

for more dard hunter designs: