Return to your Tokyo neighborhood one more time. What are the distinctive elements of your neighborhood in Tokyo today? Does it preserve anything of its historical past? Are there any new monuments that have replaced old ones? How do these new monuments reflect the modern character of the city?
Hiroshige reveled in working in series. One Hundred View of Edo is only the best known of numerous series of Edo that he designed.
Examine any prints that you can find by Hiroshige of your neighborhood starting with Hiroshige’s One Hundred Views of Edo. What does he choose to portray? How does he capture the essential character of the locale? Does he treat the landscape and genre elements in their prints in a similar manner? Does color and line function in the same way in each print? Can you find consistent elements in the prints, or does Hiroshige artist work with a variety of techniques, using only a selection in each image?
For sources of images see on reserve:
Hokusai and Hiroshige (xNE 1325 K3 A4 1998) For the One Hundred Views, see pls. 168-184.
Prints by Utagawa Hiroshige in the James A. Michener Collection (xNE 1325 A5 A4 1992, vols. 1-2. For the One Hundred Views, see pls. IV-32-A B IV-32-O, pp. 102-109.
Smith, Henry. One Hundred Views of Edo (xNE 1325 A5 A4 1986 and 1986b) Note one version is in Japanese, but the English titles are written in pencil on the tops of the prints and are included in the reproductions.
All images necessary to put together your presentation can be found in the Library image database or on line.
After working with Hiroshige’s prints try to find a Meiji period photograph of your neighborhood using the link on the class web page to the National Diet Library database. How is the photographic image different from the print? What do the differences tell you about Hiroshige?
The Togukawa Shogunate used a variety of art forms to legitimize its political authority. Architects, painters, tea masters and Noh performers we all employed to establish a visual rhetoric of power that reenforced the other systems the Tokugawa rulers employed to control Japan.
In an essay not to exceed five typewritten pages in length, please discuss some of the ways the early Tokugawa rulers used art to promote their political goals. You should draw your observations from the readings, lectures and objects themselves.
Due October 5, at 4:00 pm.
First Discussion Session
Working together in groups of four , identify three images of the area of Edo/Tokyo that you have been assigned. If at all possible, these images should date from three different centuries. One or two members of the group, as spokespersons, should be prepared to briefly present the class an overview of the history of that particular area and articulate the significance of the images that the group has selected. Digital images are available at the Visual Resource Collection web page as well as of course on the web.
Use as references the following texts:
Waley, Paul. Tokyo Now and Then: An Explorer=s Guide
Waley, Paul. Tokyo Stories.
You may also want to consult, Smith, Henry and Amy Poster, One Hundred Views of Edo.
Areas:
1 Nihonbashi
2 Ginza and Shinbashi
3 Ueno
4 Asakusa
5 Yoshiwara
6 Shiba