Amarillo Museum of Art

Eizan
Three beauties under a cherry tree, from
the series Furyu mikoshi hiki, ca. 1850
Woodblock print on Paper
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. William T. Price

When American Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo (present day Tokyo) in 1854, Japan had been closed to the western world for over 200 years. A year later, a treaty was signed which opened Japan’s ports to foreign trade. Japanese artifacts began pouring into Europe and led to a rage for all things Japanese – a phenomenon called Japonisme. Fans, kimonos, lacquered boxes, and hanging scrolls were but a few items sold in a Far Eastern shop near in the early 1860s. But the impressions ukiyo-e prints made on 19^th century European artists went much further than an exotic fad.

The Beautiful Women of the Ukiyo-e: Japanese Woodblock Prints Gifts from Dr. and Mrs. William T. Price features 17 masterpieces by such renowned Edo period Japanese artists as Utamaro, Eizan, Eisen, and Toyokuni II, illustrating the beautiful women of the ukiyo-e "floating world." The woodblock prints seen in this exhibition captured a sophisticated world of urban pleasures mixed with the traditional Japanese love of nature. They originated during the Edo period (1615-1868) when the political and military power was in the hands of the shoguns, the country was isolated from the rest of the world, and a period of peace developed which allowed for attention to the fine arts.

During this long stable period a demand for images of contemporary urban life in a new style reflecting the lives of the middle and upper middle classes became highly favored. Consequently, pictures of beautiful women (bijin-ga) instantly became à la mode subject, especially ladies of the pleasure quarters or famous beauties of the day. The perspective they provided for idealized portraiture, beauty and depictions of the most up-to-date fashions cannot be underestimated. Underlying themes of love and sex dominated subject matter of ukiyo-e print production and reality was mixed with the illusion of idealized eroticism and power to produce an engaging blend of fact and fantasy.

*This text is an excerpt from the exhibition catalogue, Illusion and Reality: Edo Period Japanese Prints and Paintings from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. William T. Price.

Exhibitions