Oriental Folk Woodblock Prints in a Cross-cultural Context:
Japanese Ukiyo-e and Chinese New Year Picture in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century
ZHANG Xiang
Zhongshan University
Until recently comparative scholarship on Oriental art has judged it in terms of propositions
rested more on Occidental art experience. Only few has it judged in terms of contiguity to
Japanese Ukiyo-e (floating world pictures), let alone Chinese New Year Picture as a possible
forgotten source for Eastern aesthetics. "Although closely related to the tradition of
Orientalist painting, Japonism has rarely been treated in connection with Orientalist paintings
in art historical scholarship"[1]. The paper tries to compare not only Ukiyo-e with New Year
Picture, but when comparing an Eastern transition of Western painting, the Sino-Japanese
experience is viewed as an equally valid standard for scholarly comparisons. In an effect to
uncover deep-lying conceptions of woodblock prints in a trans-cultural context, I have relied
on three types of evidence in particular. First, I have stressed Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture
as the critical structure for basic thinking, accepting the hypothesis that both folk arts
structure the processes and categories concerning its functional bearings, spatial
compositional judgment and symbolic practice in a cross-national dimension. Second, how
Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture print designers made sense of the heterogenous elements
confronting them and what spatial rendering has been interpreted and adapted respectively?
The third source of evidence is what Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture visualize as the
transgress-able boundaries, what the deviation of their imitation are for the counterpart, and
what these two see beyond the boundaries. By showing how the Sino-Japanese experience
relates to each other and that of an Occidental context, an aesthetic standpoint is to be
reassessed to offer insight into Oriental folk arts.
1. The Unauthentic Compatibility of Homogenous and Heterogenous: a Retrospective
Analysis of Oriental Woodblock Prints
Japanese Ukiyo-e and Chinese New Year Picture, intriguing representatives of Oriental
folk woodblock prints benefit from Buddhist woodcut and the art of printing that originates in
Oriental1 though the exact time still mystifies us. Ukiyo-e is said to have been born out of
Emaki (scrolls - one type of Heian painting) and Yamato-e (Japanese painting named in
contrast to Chinese painting2) and it has become recognized as powerful and innovative work
in the great tradition of Japanese art. New Year Picture is considered to have distinctive
national features in the subjects, the techniques of block printing and art styles. What this
recognition ignores, Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture, at the most simplified level, involve
opposing and complementary concepts of homogenous and heterogenous.
Buddhism was formally introduced to Japan from Korean Peninsula in the 6th century
and rose to its first cultural importance3 in the 8th century in which religious faith drew forth
the printing skill revealed as early as in Million Tatuoluoni in 770 [2]. The Emaki (scroll)
Karma (preordained fate) Scripture- Devils Captured to which Ukiyo-e has affinity [3].
Buddhists used printing method for copying images of Buddha to distribute them among an
1
increasing number of disciples. Senyui
Temple, Kyoto has been the printing
pioneer famous for its Senyui Edition
based on which and others such as Saga
Edition's Ise Tales (Monogatari)[ Fig. 1]
and Usuyuki Tales of ancient
movable-type edition regarded as an
earlier type proceeded to Ukiyo-e [4].
Woodblock publishing houses reached
to about 100 in Edo Period [5].
Moronobu, the form was virtually created by Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-1694), the initiator
of Ukiyo-e, who is believed to be "the first to discover that, by using wood-block printing
methods already developed for book illustrations"[6].
The first Buddhist missionaries came to China in about 67, Han [7]. Buddhist tradition
of iconography was adopted to fit native systems of taste. Buddhist scriptures and deity beliefs
have been the initial motivations of New Year Picture. The images of Buddha in the Mogaoku
Caves reveal blocking printing had reached a high level in the T'ang (618-907)4. Paper Horse
(to be burned while worship), which descends from Buddha image woodcut in the T'ang
preludes the emergence of New Year Picture. Saint
Guan Gong 38 × 32 cm, woodcut paper horse,
Yangliuqing, Tianjin. Ch'ing [fig. 2] [8]. The blocking
printing was extensively used in manufacturing New
Year Picture in the Song (960-1279) whose images of
Buddha and immortals were depicted into shapes that
became established as part of a long heritage. The
decorative effect shows the judgement of scale which
are to characterize artistic tendency in succeeding
centuries. Chinese individualized and secularized gods
and the scale of them in the tradition depend on the
status instead of the far/near position that is different
from its Indian equivalent.
Fig. 2
The earliest method of oriental printing involved the use of wooden block [9] among
which Buddhist woodcut is devoted to Sino-Japanese scenes and sentiments; out of them come
the special oriental sensitivity and sense of interpretative juxtaposition of blocs of material on a
flat surface. Sino-Japanese artists developed the Indian mode further, merging native instincts
with Nara and T'ang aspirations. "The new humanness of Nara Buddhist art the Japanese hand
imparted was to prevail over Indian's iconographic model and it was partly inspired by the rich
T'ang style, introduced in the late 7th century"[10].
Book illustrations play an active role in Sino-Japanese folk art exchange. Before the
patterns of Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture tended to be finalized, a conversion caused by book
illustrations opened up possibilities for Oriental woodblock developments. It's unparalleled in
two ways: by imitating the illustrations of historical and legendary books instead of collection
of authentic paintings as the first choice; by consulting Sino-Japanese copies of Western block
prints.
2
Moronobu, who began his woodblock series between 1658 and 1660 said his Pictorial
Stories of Unrestrained Life had consulted Unrestrained Life Pictures, Ming [11]. Kitagawa
Utamato who had been student of the Kanō School became a Ukiyo-e designer in 1775[12].
Katsushika Hokusai is believed to have executed drawing illustrations for 437 volumes of 167
books 5[13]. The following are some of the Chinese books that have been reprinted rapidly and
been available to Japanese: Drawing Records of Emperor's Teachings 1573, Legend of Celestial
Beings 1600, Immortal and Buddhist Queer Lives 1602 [14]. Compliments on Saints, the Wanli
Period (1573-1619), Ming when is the heyday of woodblock illustrations.
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
[fig.3] Women Busy on Housework, Fengxiang, Shaanxi. Ming [15]. [fig.4] A Hundred Ukiyo
Women, by Moronobu [16]. Jiezi Model Painting (1679) Ch'ing is the representative of the
Period [17]. Color woodblock plate began to be used [18]. [fig.5]Beauties as Gift, 25.5×90cm,
Tianjing, Ch'ing [19].
Fig.5
Fig. 6
3
The composition within the procession is arranged in recurrent groups in which not only is the
ground plane established but also the volume of each figure is surrounded by space. [fig.6]
Seven Noble Women in Bamboo Forest, by Suzuki Harunobu (?- 1770)[20]. The 17th century
saw enriched Occidental art that shows a move towards ornate decoration carried out on more
substantial forms. [fig. 7] may be
looked upon as a fine example of
that remarkable apparition in
Oriental History. Ancient the
Goddess, paper woodblock, 30.7
× 14cm, 1605 Ming [21]. Its
source is from Japan [fig. 8] The
Goddess Takes a Child in his
Arms, copperplate etching, 1597,
Nagasaki [22].
After a brief investigation on
Fig. 8
Fig. 7
the recorded events, the role of
Buddhist woodcut, woodblock printing and book illustrations in shaping Ukiyo-e and New Year
Picture is beyond dispute6. Its significance is chiefly as a process of assimilation and transition
between the subtle Buddhist work, together with alien imposing book illustrations. The time
witnessed the subjects, the techniques and the styles of the illustrations were varied. However, it
seems that the consultation narrowed to its facial value on an isolated subject, eliminating key
elements but novelties, led to very different styles of painting. The analysis demonstrated that
the juxtaposition of heterogenous patterns and techniques helps to the possibility and
impossibility of alien elements that are established, in different shapes, by "symbolic shifts" -composition, spatial construction, laws, taboos.
2. An Idealized Compatibility Compared in Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture
Ukiyo-e has been fashionable in Japan for about two hundreds and sixty years
(1603-1867)[23]. New Year Picture, which prevails throughout China, is a large kind of folk arts
with a long history. In an idealized dimension, Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture resemble each other.
There is in both an aspiration to celebrate New Year, a single wooden block to be used widely, an
arrangement of "the five-dimensional space" and a reliance upon gorgeous costumes and
large-scale to give color and life to the production.
In the late 17th century, esp., the great fire in 1657 served as a turning point for Eto citizens
to rebuild its culture. Ukiyo-e depicts the life and personalities of the lively entertainment world
of Edo whose citizens got into the habit of replacing calendar with new ones e on New Year's day
that is the motif to stimulate Ukiyo-e. Eto calendar was composed of two slices of papers named
"30-day and 29-day calendars" stuck on the pillar or the kitchen wall. The polychrome print of
calendar was in fashion to be displayed in 1764-1772. Suzuki Harunobu is noted for his "printed
calendar" that helps to make the process of woodblock to be replaced by multicolor to polychrome
printing. New Year Picture, just as its name implies, is what has been stuck on the door or indoor
walls to spend the New Year with festival and auspicious colors as well as to exorcise evils and
prevent disaster. Up to the Ch'ing, Yangliu Qing and Taohuawu of Suzhou were both celebrated
for their New Year Picture among which Yangliu Qing imitates figure paintings of T'ang and Song
4
in sketch while following Ch'ing's style in bird and flower painting. It has been 300 years since
Yangliu Qing employed watercolor block printing technique to print drama roles, historical stories,
beauties, kids and gods [24]. An obvious similarity is that in the earlier process, Ukiyo-e and New
Year Picture woodblock prints involve the cooperation of painter, block cutter and workman7.
Both have employed partly woodblock half-printing with colored half-painting that could
manufacture albums of separate prints and large sheets that it could sell cheaply to command a big
market.
The tact of "the five-dimensional space" is to demonstrate the spatial construction in
Oriental art practice. Unlike the physical dimensions of the two, three and the four, "the
five-dimensional space" is a psychological activity based on bird's-eye view or the
superimposition of horizontal, curvilinear, radioactive pictorial layers with an offhand
combination. As for the skeleton, which is
subjected to an idealized value and emotion in the
subjective world that constitutes an arbitrary way
of image composition. [fig. 9]Guan Gong Burns
Candle, 17 × 22 cm, (1573-1619) [25]. A
traditional viewpoint that arranges the subjects human, animal or plant in the front of buildings,
pavilions or furnishings is popular. Though walls
Fig. 9
and roofs are in large size, the figures usually appear in full faces in order to be accordance with
Oriental aesthetic sense. [fig. 10] The North Building and Bi Drama, by Hishikawa Moronobu
[26]. The screen and Tatami appear to be taken from a bird's-eye view, while figures are
depicted in a horizontal
plane. "The combination of
an overhead view of
buildings with an almost
side-on view of figures is a
convention common to
both Chinese and Japanese
painting" [27].
The popular Japanese
Fig. 10
properties of Ukiyo-e figures are folding fan, pets and three-chord musical instrument to give
indication of citizens' leisure and comfortable life. The world of
daily life and work that swirled around it on the streets of the great
cities was captured by the Ukiyo-e blockprints. New Year Picture
makes use of properties that seem to have nothing to do with the
theme, but by means of cultural experience to conceive an
abstraction [28]. Zhong Kui, color woodblock, Shandong, Ch'ing
[fig. 11] [29]. "Bat" in Chinese character is a homonym of "fu"
which means "happiness". The superposition of the flying bat and
the aspiration for happiness emphasizes the tone. Zhong Kui
Protects the House, color woodblock [fig. 12] [30]. The bat in the
Fig. 11
picture acts as a guide to search for evils, it also means the coming
of happiness and protecting the house. [fig. 13] [31] Shou Ki (Zhong Kui), by Yorii Kiyomasu is
5
Fig. 13
Fig. 12
acted out in a setting without the bats though rooster,
pine tree and bamboo are visible in both Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture. Another interesting role
is the animal such as the personification of The Mouse Getting Married, Zhangzhou, Fujian [fig.
14][32]. The mouse married off a
daughter to a cat in order to avoid the
disaster of being eaten. The
practicability is obvious in that the
number of mouse might be brought
under control to harmonize the
relationship between human and
nature. The mouse is a symbol of life
prosperity in Chinese folk fine arts
which reflects the folk-custom and
public feeling of what peasants and
Fig. 14
common people are concerned about
of their daily life.
Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture inherit the tradition of genre
painting on subject matter. The main topics include portraits of
beautiful women and actors prints. Ukiyo-e citizens' tastes reflected in
the actors shown in the strong, clear-cut, set emotional poses of
Kabuki drama. Far from venerating the old and nostalgic with other
Japanese aesthetes, for these early moderns the best recommendation
for an actor, artist, or style of dress was that it was the latest thing
[33]. [fig. 15] woodblock print, by Torii Kiyomasu [34]. The heavy
makeup is colored in with broad strokes that almost recall the smell of
the theater. Ukiyo-e's deepest artistic experiences are also reflected in
the painting of the beauty that is a favorite topic of New Year Picture.
[fig. 16] Standing Beauty, Chouyoudou [35]. The Ukiyo-e beauty has
Fig. 15
a facial expression drawn with a few lines and circles but capture
6
superbly their emotional moods. Chinese beauties have a similar style shown in an obviously
identical visage with cherry-like small mouth except that they have willow eyebrow, apricot
eyes to offer the painting with strong ornament and entertainment effects. Woodblock painting
predetermines proportion of the figures to be big enough to ensure its
clear identification after printing. In the pursuit of aesthetic feeling of
composition, Ukiyo-e designers seem to be used to the symmetry of
the big and small size [fig.17] [36]. A fixed pattern of Chinese
door-god is the bilateral symmetry of right and left. [fig. 18] color
woodblock, Yangliu Qing, Tianjing, Ch'ing [37]. The door-god, a
quintessence of China has the individualized features.
Showmanship as a stylized collective aesthetic in Ukiyo-e and
New Year Picture whose themes come most from daily life and
ordinary settings and haven't been done with any pretense that great
art is being created. The moral teachings have been considerably
faded into topics related to affairs of human life. The functional
bearing as the primary factor conceived in Sino-Japanese woodblock
prints. [fig.19] Kylin Delievering the Children, New Year Picture,
Zhuxianzhen, Kaifeng, Henan [38]. Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture are
pitched against the aesthetic mainstream that means they are made to
Fig. 16
stand as representatives of the common people's artistic taste different
from scholar-painters', forming a complement to painting. It imbues the notions of simplicity
with an overarching decoration, and suggests that Oriental craftsman's response to the world
about them is a crucial element in the formation of their styles.
Fig. 18
Fig. 17
3. Response to the Europe of the Sino-Japanese Woodblock Prints in Reference to Artistic
Configuration
One of the features of oriental pictorial traditions is that the painter is able to combine
realistically conceived lines on a flat surface in a way that expresses his subjective perception of
patterns rather than photographic realism. The two-dimensional plane - an Oriental spatial
composition that exists side by side and later serves as a catalyst to Western painting in the
second half of the 19th century a new type of pictorial plane free from the three-dimensional
7
space - an absolute criterion in Occidental spatial
construction. However, the linear perspective discovered by
the Renaissance masters of the West had been introduced to
Japan and China in the 17th and 18th century. The spread of
block painting began with the Buddhist scriptures. Then
comes the Eastern transition of Western painting by means of,
once again, religious activities though by Christianity
missionaries instead. One interesting finding is that, just as
there are similarities between Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture,
so are there similarities in the response of them to "East Asian
Fig. 19
response to the West". Every East Asian nation found itself in
the same situation of having to meet the threat to their national integrity posed by the
industrialized Western powers.
The growing complexity of society at the 17th century was reflected in an enriched cultural
life in which heterogenous tastes supported a wide variety of craftsmen: the presence of
missionaries at Chinese court8 and increasing affluence was one of the key factors which
nurtured artistic diversity. Outside court circles, in flourishing districts such as Nanking, Suzhou,
craftsmen found a ready market [39]. The European models newly available in their diversity
were an attractive challenge. Some continued to paint or make prints in traditional manners, but
their work lacked confidence and seemed merely derivative. Others sought to paint in the
current European style, but their art, while often technically impressive (especially considering
the artist's alien background), is generally imitative and does not quite attain first rank [40].
Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764)'s Enjoying the Cool at Ryō goku-Bridge (Ryō gokubashi Y
ū suzumi) [fig.20][41]. It is
possible to have found here
explicit trace of Western
linear perspective in the
frontal projection while the
background is still depicted
from a bird's-eye view: a lack
of a fixed horizon line in the
bid's-eye view panoramas.
[fig.21] Tangseng Getting
Married in the Women
Fig.20
Kingdom, Taohuawu, Suzhou
[42]. The river and the house
were depicted from a bird's-eye
view, the details of the human
figures and the boat are in a
horizontal viewpoint. Shifting
viewpoints, the lack of horizon
and the combination of the
linear perspective are the first
generation of Oriental artists'
Fig.21
8
contributions. The new realism became rooted in Oriental tradition and it further generated a
school of decorative painting in the 18th and 19th century.
The use of color, light and shade, modelling and linear perspective, all seemed exotic
and fascinating to the Oriental eyes. "Occidental picture" prevailed for a time in the Yung
Cheng (1723-35) and Ch'ien Lung (1736-95) reigns of Ch'ing that impressed on the
representation techniques of the New Year Picture absorbing the linear perspective and the
fluctuation of light and shade in manifesting the city life and common customs. Westernized
Suzhou print has a richness and generosity of scale in decoration, and is also free from the
mannerism of finalized New Year Picture. [fig. 22] Amiability, Taohuawu, Suzhou [43]. The
mellow face, plump shapes, amicable or impressive countenance, meaningful auspicious
ornaments, bright red and green colors to show the jubilation though it has been interpreted as
"vulgar" characteristics with provinciality9. The process of acceptance and repulsion reveals a
sophisticated painting style developed undergoing a successive transformation.
After defining what they have in common, let's
consider briefly the ways in which Ukiyo-e and New Year
Picture are not alike and why their dissimilarities led to such
different historical outcomes. Though have been provided
with considerable artistic style, Ukiyo-e firstly served as the
leaflet, poster and calendar. A great deal of Ukiyo-e has been
distributed abroad, some even in the way of wrapping paper
of ware without being attached much importance to. Ukiyo-e
's gradual acceptance in Europe and popularization at home
is critical to sustaining the art market upturn. One factor has
hitherto prevented the New Year Picture being regarded as
an 'art' on the same level as Chinese drama is the low social
Fig. 22
position of craftsmen [44]. A successful example is that Suzhou New Year Picture was supported
by a group of commercially-minded painters, who were yet of the educated class, made their
appearance in there centers. Advertising their work for sale and producing considerable quantities
of large-sized paintings. What seems to be out of perspective for a Westerner may be a strategy
pursued by Eastern painters that is different from the European pursuit of an artistic effect of
depth and volume. The pursuit has not been developed haphazardly, but has been deliberately
constructed to create the humanizing effect of panorama. [fig. 23] High Waves off Kanagawa, one
of the famous thirty-six views of Mt.
Fuji by Hokusai Katsushika. His
landscapes are striking in their control
of composition and use of unusual
angles of vision. His view of Mt. Fuji,
including the world-famous view
through a curling wave of the great peak
that is virtually Japan's trademark, show
that he does not so much copy nature as
remold it to fit the requirements of
drama and geometry. Hokusai became a
Fig. 23
great painter of truly international stature [45]. The print designers' dedication to initiative earned
9
them both honor and affection at home and abroad. An idealized compatibility call for a tolerance
for a glorious messiness that it also represents deeply rooted ideas of diversity and respecters of
novelty.
4. Conclusion: Oriental Folk Woodblock Arts Reassessed
Many and varied Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture come to occupy a place not far from the
center of 'high' artistic concern in the eyes of the cultural man with its "vulgarity" and "gaudiness".
To critics, that Ukiyo-e, and possibly New Year Picture expresses the emotional experience of
their times. The rejection of the superficiality European life implied an urge towards new world,
and an embrace of life at its most fundamental that is equal to the originality of Oriental
woodblock prints. With the dawn of pictorial exploration, the notion that the subjective spatial
construction in the Orientals may be unique in the system is strengthened.
The paper does not want to break down distinctions completely as Ukiyo-e and New Year
picture do have different casts of connotations, and the positions they stand for do have very
different aspirations and complexions. But the paper does want to suggest that we should place the
two folk prints in a graduated relationship to one another and thus regard both as occupying the
ends of a spectrum of ideas projecting each other and so does the West. So if they have little
common, especially in topics chosen, there is a middle ground between them where ideas and
impulses from both encounters with one other is fused or held in active tension. The degree to
which the linear perspective affects the oriental arts depends in part on the level of intentional
fallacy or affective fallacy. The tension in dilemma and ambiguity may provide a path open to
impetus and power of creation. Transgression, for both Ukiyo-e and New Year Pictures, occurs in
the least basic sense when heterogenous elements are introduced in the realm of relative
homogeneity. "Very generally, the homogenous may be thought of as what is assimilated, made
obedient to rules even in visual forms, made orderly, while the heterogenous is what is rejected,
dis-orderly, simply other "[46]. Presenting an item of new interpretation, hypotheses, and data, a
balanced overall perspective is expected to reach on both the universality and particularity of
Oriental experience. In the process of "globalization", the authentic compatibility of culture seems
to have been built conspicuously on the seeming incompatible or reverberant elements. The
absolute criterion of the canon of a culture is but an image searching for cultural identity. An
amalgamation is what witnesses though the interplay involves domestication, transpositions and
hybridity.
Notes
[1] Inaga Shigemi, 稻贺繁美 《绘画东方》 The Orient of the Painting --Crépuscule de la
Peinture II, Nagoya, Nagoya University Press, 2000. p. 3.
[2] Kobayashi Tadashi, 小林 忠 《日本美术 8 --师宣和初期浮世绘》Japanese Fine Arts
8 --Moronobu and Early Days Ukiyo-e, Tokyo, Letterpress Company 1996. p. 20.
[3] Si Tuchang, 司徒常《外国美术史教程》A Concise History of Foreign Art, Guangdong,
Linnan Art Publishing House, 1994. p. 315.
[4] Kobayashi Tadashi, Japanese Fine Arts 8 --Moronobu and Early Days Ukiyo-e, p.21.
10
[5] Si Tuchang, A Concise History of Foreign Art, p.319.
[6] Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., An Invitation to Japanese Civilization, California, University of
Southern California, 1980. p. 111-112.
[7] Huang Songyi, 黄颂一 《佛教二百题》Two Hundreds Questions of Buddhism, Sichuan,
Sichuan People's Publishing House, 1997. p.485.
[8] Wang Shucun, 王树村 《关公百图》 A Hundred Pictures of Guan Gong, Guangzhou,
Lingnan Fine Arts Publishing House 1996. p.43.
[9] Edward H. Schafer, A History of the World's Cultures --Ancient China, Nederland,
Time-life International B.V., 1977. p.133.
[10] Mary Tregear, Chinese Art, London, Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1980. p.81.
[11] Si Tuchang, A Concise History of Foreign Art, p.319.
[12] Qiu Ling, eds., 邱岭等编著《日本--文学艺术集粹》Japanese Literary and Art
Collections, Shanghai, Dongfang Publishing Center, 2001. p.117.
[13] Si Tuchang, A Concise History of Foreign Art, p.318.
[14] Zhou Yiliang & Nakanishi Susumu, 周一良、中西进主编 《中日文化交流史大系》
Sino-Japanese Cultural Exchange Series, Hangzhou, Zhejiang People's Publishing
House, 1996. p: 56.
[15] Pan Lusheng & Tang Jialu, 潘鲁生、唐家路 《年画》New Year Picture, Shanghai,
Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House, p. 21.
[16] Kobayashi Tadashi, Japanese Fine Arts 8 --Moronobu and Early Days Ukiyo-e, p. 87.
[17] Lu Shourong, 卢寿荣 《八仙》 The eight Immortals in the legend, Jinan, Shandong
Pictorial Publishing House, 2004. p:43.
[18] Zhou Xinhui, 周心慧 《中国古代版刻版画史论集》Collection of Chinese Ancient
Engraving and Woodprints History, Beijing, Xueyuan Publishing House, 1998. p. 51.
[19] Wang Shucun, A Hundred Pictures of Guan Gong, p. 55.
[20] Kobayashi Tadashi, Japanese Fine Arts 8 --Moronobu and Early Days Ukiyo-e, p. 75.
[21] Mo Xiaoye, 莫小也《十七-十八世纪传教士与西画东渐》Missionaries and Eastern
Transition of Western Painting in 17-18th Century, Hangzhou, China academy of Art
Press, 2000. p. 109.
[22] Ibid., p. 66.
[23] Ye Weiqu 叶渭渠 《日本文明》Japanese Civilization, Biejing, China Social and
Science Publishing House, 1999. p: 210
[24] Lu Xin 陆昕 《闲话藏书》Free Talks on Collection of Books, Beijing, Xueyang
Publishing House, 2002. p. 58-59.
[25] Wang Shucun, A Hundred Pictures of Guan Gong, p. 59.
[26] Kobayashi Tadashi, Japanese Fine Arts 8 --Moronobu and Early Days Ukiyo-e, p. 39.
[27] Mary Tregear, Chinese Art, p.123.
[28] Zhang Shiya, 张世彦《绘画构图引导》Guide to Painting and Composition, Shenzhen,
Haitian Publishing House, 1988. p. 83.
[29] Sun Jianjun, 孙建君《民间神像》Folk Deity, Tianjing, Tianjing People's Publishing
House 2001. p. 96.
[30] Ibid., p. 96.
[31] Kobayashi Tadashi, Japanese Fine Arts 8 --Moronobu and Early Days Ukiyo-e, p. 49.
[32] Pan Lusheng & Tang Jialu, New Year Picture, p. 43.
11
[33]
[34]
[35]
[36]
Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., An Invitation to Japanese Civilization, p. 111.
Ibid., p. 113.
Kobayashi Tadashi, Japanese Fine Arts 8 --Moronobu and Early Days Ukiyo-e, p. 48.
Kobayashi Tadashi, Japanese Fine Arts 8 --Moronobu and Early Days Ukiyo-e, inside
front cover.
[37] Sun Jianjun, Folk Deity, p. 149.
[38] Pan Lusheng & Tang Jialu, New Year Picture, p. 51.
[39] Mary Tregear, Chinese Art, p.184.
[40] Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., An Invitation to Japanese Civilization, p. 115.
[41] Kobayashi Tadashi, Japanese Fine Arts 8 --Moronobu and Early Days Ukiyo-e, p. 12.
[42] Pan Lusheng & Tang Jialu, New Year Picture, p. 59.
[43] Ibid., p. 18.
[44] C.P. Fitzgerald, China-- A Short Cultural History, Great Britain: W & J Madkay
Limited, Chatham Barrie & Jenkins Communica-Europa, 1978. p. 499.
[45] Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., An Invitation to Japanese Civilization, p. 114.
[46] Catherine Marchak, The Joy of Transgression: Bataille and Kristeva, Philosophy Today,
Winter1990, p.354.
Dating in A.D. 868, Pā ramita Sutra on the title page with Xiantong, the ninth year T'ang Dynasty, 15, April and
postscript is generally acknowledged the earliest woodblock print remained. Pā ramita Sutra, a word in Sanskrit
in Old India means "arriving at an ideal state". The Sutra is now in Great Britain Museum, Lodon (Zheng Zhenduo
1988:249) and it is at least 500 years earlier than the West [14].
2 The Yamato-e (probably the late ninth century in Heian Period 794-1185), being Japanese in aspiration, are more
often secular than Buddhist in subject matter. The most famous is the late Heian scroll of The Tale of Genji,
showing scenes from that celebrated novel.
3 Buddhist art gave way to sentimentality for effect through lavish and the like. Painting on scrolls became the
format for written and pictorial records. The two traditions of China and Japan should be considered together in the
ninth century" [12].
4 Gwent Tim (Germany) agreed that the earliest woodcut originated in China. It may be longer than recorded
history. "One of China's most important contributions to civilization was the inventions of printing, a revolutionary
development that took place in the eighth century, some 700 years before it appeared in Europe" [8]. The
hand-scroll, together with the hanging scroll soon became the favorite painting format.
5 Hokusai and Utagawa Toyokuni also drew illustrations for textbooks of private schools that reached to about
20,000 in 1872 in Japan.
6 Although historical, social and man-made factors make it difficult to preserve first-hand Chinese New Year
Picture and only a small number of specific details have been detected, the diffusion and influence to which
Ukiyo-e and New Year Picture designers might have been accessible.
7 The use of wooden blocks has steps on which a text was carved in raised symbols. First, an expert calligrapher
formed the characters with a brush and ink on translucent paper. Next, a slab of soft wood was covered with
rice-paste and the paper was placed with its inked side down on the slab to prepare for the carving process. The
block was ready for the workman inked the raised characters with a brush. Then the actual printing began [10].
8 There had been Jesuits at the Chinese court since 1601 when Matteo Ricci was attached to the Wan Li court.
There were also some Jesuit painters at court, the most notable of whom was Lang Shih-ning (Giuseppe
Castiglione) (1688-1766) who had trained in Italy as an architect and painter.
9 The woodblock prints in Suzhou area that exercised considerable Western influence on New Year Picture in the
18th century were available to Japanese via Nagasaki.
1
12