Orient Expressed. The master of Japanese ukiyo-e

Hiroshige was one of the last great artists of ukiyo-e, the woodblock print genre that flourished between the 17th and 19th century and did much to determine the world’s visual concept of Japan. This dependable introduction leads you through the blossoming cherry trees, beautiful women, and dramatic ocean views that made Hiroshige a household name and became exemplary of Japonisme.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) was one of the last great artists in the ukiyo-e tradition. Literally meaning “pictures of the floating world,” ukiyo-e was a particular woodblock print genre of art that flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries. Subjects ranged from the bright lights and attractions of Edo (modern-day Tokyo), to spectacular natural landscapes.

In the West, Hiroshige’s prints became exemplary of the Japonisme that swept through Europe and defined the Western world’s visual idea of Japan. Because they could be mass produced, ukiyo-e works were often used as designs for fans, greeting cards, and book illustrations. The style influenced Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Art Nouveau artists alike, with Vincent van Gogh and James Abbott McNeill Whistler both particularly inspired by Hiroshige’s landscapes.

This introductory book presents key images from Hiroshige’s vibrant, vivid portfolio of blooming cherry trees, beautiful women, Kabuki actors, and busy shopping streets to introduce one of the greats of Asian art history.

The author:

Adele Schlombs studied Sinology, East Asian art history, European art history, and comparative religious studies at Cologne and Heidelberg Universities. From 1984 to 1987 she studied at Kyoto University and gained her doctorate in 1989 at Heidelberg University. In 1991, she took over the directorship of the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne and since then she has organized numerous loan exhibitions of Japanese and Chinese art.

About the series:

Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features:

- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
- a concise biography
- approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

City lights and cherry trees. The woodblock prints of Tokyo that captured Europe's imagination

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) was one of the last great artists in the ukiyo-e tradition. Literally meaning “pictures of the floating world,” ukiyo-e was a particular genre of art that flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries and came to characterize the Western world’s visual idea of Japan. In many ways images of hedonism, ukiyo-e scenes often represented the bright lights and attractions of Edo (modern-day Tokyo): beautiful women, actors and wrestlers, city life, and spectacular landscapes.

Though he captured a variety of subjects, Hiroshige was most famous for landscapes, with a final masterpiece series known as “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” (1856–1858), which depicted various scenes of the city through the seasons, from bustling shopping streets to splendid cherry orchards.

This reprint is made from one of the finest complete original sets of woodblock prints belonging to the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo. It pairs each of the 120 illustrations with a description, allowing readers to immerse themselves in these beautiful, vibrant vistas that became paradigms of Japonisme and inspired Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Art Nouveau artists alike, from Vincent van Gogh to James McNeill Whistler.

About the series:

Bibliotheca Universalis — Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!

Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together more than 100 of our all-time favourite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.

Bookworm’s delight — never bore, always excite!

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) was one of the last great artists in the ukiyo-e tradition. Literally meaning "pictures of the floating world", ukiyo-e refers to the famous Japanese woodblock print genre that originated in the 17th century and is practically synonymous with the Western world`s visual characterization of Japan. Though Hiroshige captured a variety of subjects, his greatest talent was in creating landscapes of his native Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and his most famous work was a series known as "100 Famous Views of Edo" (1856-1858). This book provides an introduction to his work and an overview of his career.

The author:

Adele Schlombs studied sinology, East Asian art history, European art history, and comparative religious studies at Cologne and Heidelberg Universities. From 1984 to 1987 she studied at Kyoto University and gained her doctorate in 1989 at Heidelberg University. In 1991, she took over the directorship of the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne and since then she has organized numerous loan exhibitions of Japanese and Chinese art.

About the Series:

Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:

-  a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
-  approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions
-  a concise biography

Hiroshige: Nature and the City is the most extensive overview of the career of the famed Japanese print artist, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) in the English language to date. It is based on the largest collection of Hiroshige in private hands outside Japan, the Alan Medaugh collection.

The catalogue consists of 500 entries, with an emphasis on urban and rural landscapes, fan prints and prints of birds and flowers. Grouped chronologically by subject it presents Hiroshige’s interpretation of the urban scenes from his hometown Edo (present-day Tokyo), the great series documenting travel along the famous highways of Japan, and the idylls of nature as represented in his bird-andflower prints.

Hiroshige often incorporated poetry in his works and for the first time all textual content is transcribed and translated. Additionally, the catalogue pays due attention to the differences between variant editions of his prints. Thus, it provides essential comparative material for every scholar, dealer, and collector.

Five essays precede the catalogue section, each written by specialists in the field. Rhiannon Paget (Curator of Asian Art at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) provides a general introduction to Hiroshige’s life and career. Andreas Marks (Curator Minneapolis Museum of Art) contributes two essays: on the publishers of Hiroshige’s prints and on Hiroshige’s collaborative works designed with his colleagues. Shiho Sasaki (conservation specialist at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco) discusses the pigment use in Hiroshige’s prints while John Carpenter (Curator of Japanese Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) investigates the source of the poetry of Hiroshige bird-and-flower prints.

About the Author:

John Carpenter is Curator of Japanese Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he has worked since the summer of 2011. From 1999 to 2009 he taught the history of Japanese art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and served as Head of the London Office of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. He has also taught courses at the University of Heidelberg. From 2009 to 2011 he was Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo. He has published widely on Japanese art, especially in the areas of calligraphy, painting, and woodblock prints. Among his recent publications is a catalogue of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, Designing Nature: The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art (2012).

The ukiyo-e masters are brought together in a volume that illustrates Japan’s “floating world” between the 17th and 19th centuries.

The so-called Edo period (1603–1868) was extremely productive for Japan from a historical and artistic standpoint; later its influence would extend beyond the archipelago, as far as the West, where it gave rise to a real passion for Japanese aesthetics and culture. The term ukiyo-e, which translates as “pictures of a floating world,” refers to the woodblock colour prints that were first created in the Edo period by combining the talents of painters like Utamaro, Hokusai, and Hiroshige with the absolute mastery of block carvers and printers. These prints are the highest aesthetic expression of what could be called a “culture of pleasure,” pervaded by the awareness that the beauties of life must be enjoyed to the full because they are bound to end. The book offers a chance to discover the world of Japanese ukiyo-e prints through over 300 works by some of the most important artists, and the themes that characterize them: from elegant female beauties to delicate flowers and birds, famous kabuki actors, valiant samurai, and even erotic subjects with their insouciant celebration of love.

About the Authors:

Francesco Paolo Campione, author and curator, teaches Cultural Anthropology at the University of Insubria (Como) and is Director of the Museo delle Culture in Lugano.
Marco Fagioli, art historian and critic, has edited many books and essays on Chinese and Japanese painting, shunga and Postimpressionist artists.
Moira Luraschi, anthropologist, is curator of the Oriental collections of the Museo delle Culture in Lugano, for which she has edited several publications on Japanese art.

A fascinating and comprehensive reference album of Hiroshige, the last great figure of the ukiyo-e style.

The great artist of the Japanese popular school of printmaking, Hiroshige (1797-1858) transmuted everyday landscapes into intimate, lyrical scenes. With Hokusai, he dominated the popular art of Japan in the first half of the nineteenth century. He captured, in a poetic, gentle way that all could understand, the ordinary person’s experience of the Japanese landscape as well varied moods of memorable places at different times. His total output was immense, some 5400 prints in all. Ukiyo-e publishing was not a cultural institution subsidized by public funds, but rather a commercial business. During his lifetime, Hiroshige was well known and commercially successful. But the Japanese society did not take 100 much notice of him. His real reputation started with his discovery in Europe.

- This beautiful book, published on the occasion of a major exhibition in Rome, examines various aspects of Hiroshige's oeuvre and reproduces in colour some two hundred of his prints.
- The comprehensive text examines his life and achievement as well as his masterworks and explains the particular qualities that make Hiroshige such an essential artist.

About the Author:

Gian Carlo Calza is Professor of East Asian Art History at the University of Venice. He has published many books, exhibition catalogues and articles.

This magnificent boxed set includes a silkbound volume of stunning, accordion-fold, color reproductions of Hiroshige’s complete series, accompanied by a separate booklet with background and descriptions of each print.

Roughly twenty-five years after Hokusai released his series of ukiyo-e prints depicting Japan’s most recognizable symbol, Hiroshige took on the subject as well — a common practice among the era’s printmakers. This volume features reproductions of the horizontal version of Hiroshige’s woodblock series, first published in 1852, and which reveal a mature artist working at the height of his powers. In the background of each of the views Mount Fuji is featured under varying vantage points and changing lights, towering over sites of sublime beauty, often animated by a few characters living in harmony with nature.

These exquisite fold-out plates are perfect for appreciating Hiroshige’s eye for composition, his nontraditional use of line, and the subtle gradations of colorand mood. Viewers can also learn much about daily life and culture in 19th-century Japan through carefully applied detail and symbolism. In his introductory booklet, Jocelyn Bouquillard provides captions for each print, as well as an appreciation of the remarkable and painstaking process of woodblock printing.

Packaged in an elegant slipcase, these volumes reflect the beautiful artistry and traditions that are embodied in the prints themselves.

About the Author:

Jocelyn Bouquillard is a curator at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and an expert in Japanese prints.

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Пролистать книгу Hiroshige: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

This elegant volume showcases Hiroshige’s exquisite scenes of 19th-century Japan in a format that honors the Japanese bookmaking tradition.

The last great master of the ukiyo-e tradition, Hiroshige produced works of subtle yet intense color. This collection of prints, first published in the 1850s, contains images of each of Japan’s provinces. Created during Hiroshige’s highly productive later years, this series was an ambitious project that captured a crucial moment in Japan’s history, a decade before the Meiji Restoration would open the doors to industrialization and Western influence. One of its most striking characteristics is the vertical presentation, which allowed Hiroshige to experiment with perspective. His sweeping panoramas of the beautiful countryside combine the illusion of distance with a depth of detail that draws the viewer in. In addition to these glorious landscapes, Hiroshige’s depictions of busy urban centers provide a rare insight into daily life in the Edo era. This beautiful slip-cased edition includes two volumes: a complete set of seventy prints and a separate booklet that provides an introduction to Hiroshige’s life and art as well as descriptive captions of the prints. From thundering waterfalls and towering cliffs to wide beaches and bustling harbors, Hiroshige’s native land emerges in serene and exquisite detail — the perfect keepsake for fans of ukiyo-e, Japanese culture, and printmaking.

Presented in a style as stunning as the prints it celebrates, this survey of Hiroshige tells the fascinating story of the last great practitioner of ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world." Hiroshige is considered to be the tradition's most poetic artist and his work had a marked influence on Western painting towards the end of the 19th century.

Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, and James Whistler were inspired by Hiroshige's serene depictions of the natural world. Arranged chronologically, this book illustrates through text and magnificent reproductions Hiroshige's youth and early career; his artistic development in the genre of landscape prints; his depictions of Edo and the provinces; the flower and bird prints; and his many popular books and paintings. It discusses the historic and cultural environment in which Hiroshige flourished and the many reasons his art continues to be revered and imitated.

Filled with 300 color reproductions, and featuring a clamshell box and Japanese-style binding, this volume is destined to become the definitive examination of Hiroshige's oeuvre.

Station to Station. A historic trail through the heart of Japan, as told by two legendary woodblock artists

This XXL edition reprints Keisai Eisen and Utagawa Hiroshige’s legendary series The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaidō, a stunning representation of the historic route between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto. Sourced from one of the finest surviving first editions, this vivid tapestry of 19th-century Japan is in equal parts a major artifact of its imperial past and a masterwork of woodblock practice.

The Kisokaidō route through Japan was ordained in the early 1600s by the country’s then-ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu, who decreed that staging posts be installed along the length of the arduous passage between Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Kyoto. Inns, shops, and restaurants were established to provide sustenance and lodging to weary travelers. In 1835, renowned woodblock print artist Keisai Eisen was commissioned to create a series of works to chart the Kisokaidō journey. After producing 24 prints, Eisen was replaced by Utagawa Hiroshige, who completed the series of 70 prints in 1838.

Both Eisen and Hiroshige were master print practitioners. In The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaidō, we find the artists’ distinct styles as much as their shared expertise. From the busy starting post of Nihonbashi to the castle town of Iwamurata, Eisen opts for a more muted palette but excels in figuration, particularly of glamorous women, and relishes snapshots of activity along the route, from shoeing a horse to winnowing rice. Hiroshige demonstrates his mastery of landscape with grandiose and evocative scenes, whether it’s the peaceful banks of the Ota River, the forbidding Wada Pass, or a moonlit ascent between Yawata and Mochizuki.

Taken as a whole, The Sixty-Nine Stations collection represents not only a masterpiece of woodblock practice, including bold compositions and an experimental use of color, but also a charming tapestry of 19th-century Japan, long before the specter of industrialization. This TASCHEN XXL edition revives the series with due scale and splendor. Sourced from the only-known set of a near-complete run of the first edition of the series, this legendary publication is reproduced in optimum quality, bound in the Japanese tradition and with uncut paper. A perfect companion piece to TASCHEN’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, it is at once a visual delight and a major artifact from the bygone era of Imperial Japan.

The editor and author:

Andreas Marks studied East Asian art history at the University of Bonn and obtained his PhD in Japanese studies from Leiden University with a thesis on 19th-century actor prints. From 2008 to 2013 he was director and chief curator of the Clark Center for Japanese Art in Hanford, California, and since 2013 has been the Mary Griggs Burke Curator of Japanese and Korean Art, head of the Department of Japanese and Korean Art, and director of the Clark Center for Japanese Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

The author:

Rhiannon Paget studied at Tokyo University of the Arts and received her doctorate in Japanese Art History from the University of Sydney, Australia. The curator of Asian art at the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, she has published research on Japanese woodblock prints, textiles, board games, and nihonga.

This highly regarded survey of the works of a master of Japanese printmaking is now available in a convenient and attractively priced flexi edition.

Utagawa Hiroshige holds an assured place in the history of art as one of the greatest and best-loved masters of the woodblock print. His immensely popular works capture the beauty and delicacy of Japan’s landscape. This superb overview of Hiroshige’s oeuvre is arranged according to subject matter: prints of birds and flowers; scenes of his native city; landscapes; still-lifes; a selection from his renowned series, “One Hundred Famous Views in Edo”; images of mist, snow, rain, and moonlight; and drawings and other works related to the artist’s prints. Matthi Forrer’s thorough and insightful essays are filled with scholarly detail and fascinating observations. The book’s breathtaking images allow readers to fully experience the splendor of Hiroshige’s prints in all their poetry and detailThis highly regarded survey of the works of a master of Japanese printmaking is now available in a convenient and attractively priced flexi edition.

About the Author:

Matthi Forrer is an independent curator and the author of numerous books on Hokusai and Japanese art, including Hokusai: Prints and Drawings and Hiroshige: Prints and Drawings (both by Prestel).

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Пролистать книгу Hiroshige: Prints and Drawings на сайте издательства.

Views of 19th-Century Tokyo. Images of a city between visual poetry and idealized reality

From verdant panoramas to decadent pleasure quarters: Utagawa Hiroshige’s final masterpiece, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, is a woodblock journey through 19th-century Tokyo and a jewel in the ukiyo-e tradition. This reprint is bound in the traditional Japanese fashion and reproduces one of the finest complete original sets belonging to the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo.

“This luxurious Japanese-bound, boxed publication transcends the coffee table cliché by combining beauty with information.”
—ARTnews Magazine, New York

Literally meaning “pictures of the floating world,” ukiyo-e refers to the famous Japanese woodblock print genre that originated in the 17th century and is practically synonymous with the Western world’s visual characterization of Japan. Because they could be mass-produced, ukiyo-e works were often used as designs for fans, New Year’s greeting cards, single prints, and book illustrations, and traditionally they depicted city life, entertainment, beautiful women, kabuki actors, and landscapes. The influence of ukiyo-e in Europe and the United States often referred to as Japonisme, can be seen in everything from impressionist painting to today’s manga and anime illustration. This reprint is made from one of the finest complete original sets of woodblock prints belonging to the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo.

Hiroshige (1797–1858) was one of the last great artists in the ukiyo-e tradition. Though he captured a variety of subjects, his greatest talent was in creating landscapes of his native Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and his final masterpiece was a series known as “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” (1856–1858). This resplendent complete reprint pairs each of the 120 large-scale illustrations with a description, allowing readers to plunge themselves into Hiroshige’s beautifully vibrant landscapes.

The authors

Lorenz Bichler studied Sinology, Japanese studies, and Modern History in Zurich and Beijing. After scholarships at the Waseda and Tokai universities in Japan, he was appointed assistant professor of politics at New York University in 1999. He has held non-established teaching posts at various universities and given online instruction at the New School of Social Research. He has been a freelance sinologist working in Heidelberg since 2004.

Before taking her doctorate in Far Eastern art history at the University of Heidelberg, Melanie Trede worked at the Gakushuin University in Tokyo. She was assistant professor at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University from 1999 to 2004, since which time she has been Professor of Far Eastern art history at the University of Heidelberg.

"Derrière moi, à Edo Je laisse mon pinceau
En route pour un nouveau voyage
Laissez-moi admirer
Toutes les vues célèbres du Paradis"
Utagawa Hiroshige, Poème d'adieu, 1858

(...) Son oeuvre d'une originalité surprenante, fascinera les japonais et influencera les occidentaux (Whistler, Pissarro, van Gogh, Monet, Bonnard). L'une des suites d'estampes les plus évocatrices offertes aux amateurs de paysages et de voyages, Les Cinquante-trois relais du Tôkaido, publiée en 1833-34, lui valut une célébrité immédiate et universelle."
Giséle Lambert
Ces 53 estampes (55 avec le départ et l'arrivée) reproduites en couleurs, à pleine page, exécutées par Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) en 1832 le long de la route du Tôkaidô (Edo-Kyoto).

.Carte
.Bibliographie

Literally meaning "pictures of the floating world", ukiyo-e refers to the famous Japanese woodblock print genre that originated in the 17th century and is practically synonymous with the Western world’s visual characterization of Japan. Because they could be mass-produced, ukiyo-e works were often used as designs for fans, New Year’s greeting cards, single prints, and book illustrations, and traditionally they depicted city life, entertainment, beautiful women, kabuki actors, and landscapes. The influence of ukiyo-e in Europe and the USA often referred to as Japonisme, can be seen in everything from impressionist painting to today’s manga and anime illustration. This reprint is made from one of the finest complete original sets of woodblock prints belonging to the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo.

Hiroshige (1797-1858) was one of the last great artists in the ukiyo-e tradition. Though he captured a variety of subjects, his greatest talent was in creating landscapes of his native Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and his final masterpiece was a series known as "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo" (1856-1858). This resplendent complete reprint pairs each of the 120 large-scale illustrations with a description, allowing readers to plunge themselves into Hiroshige’s beautifully vibrant landscapes.