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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Friday, March 29, 2024

MFA exhibit showcases woodblock prints to celebrate city of Kyoto

    Postcards may seem like a modern concept, but images created as souvenirs have been sold for centuries. "Visions of Kyoto," now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, brings together a variety of woodblock prints originally sold to tourists in the 18th and 19th centuries as a cheap way to remember their visit to the ancient city. The exhibit is part of a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Boston and Kyoto, and features woodblock pictures that were first commonly used to produce images comparable to a postcard of a sun setting over the New Jersey shore.
    However unglamorous their early purpose was, woodblock images have certainly evolved over the centuries. "Visions of Kyoto" is an examination of the Japanese art of woodblock prints or ‘ukiyo-e' and its evolution, which in many ways parallels the evolution of Japanese society. Made using an efficient multi-step process, woodcuts were easy to produce and replicate.
    "Visions of Kyoto" examines the changing perception of the city through this popular medium. No one artist is featured in the exhibit, and the images span from the late 18th century up to the mid-20th. The passage of time as seen through these images provides insight into the changes in the medium and the society the pictures are portraying.
    The exhibit itself is set up as a series of mini-cycles, one on each wall. The walls hold a number of images on a single topic in chronological order, providing a miniature evolution of the view of that topic.
    One wall features a series of woodblocks portraying fashionable Kyoto women. The first three images are from the early 19th century and show elaborately dressed courtesans. In one image by Yashima Gakutei, three courtesans lounge about drinking tea; great attention is paid to their robes, which are intricately decorated. The attention to the traditional robes gives an air of nostalgia to the piece, perhaps heralding the opening of Japan to world trade in the middle of the century and marking the time in which certain Japanese traditions would begin to fade.
    Though beautiful with their simple lines and bright colors, the pictures give the feeling of mass production. Since different artisans carried out each part of the printmaking process, early wood cut artists were distanced from their work and had only a minor impact on the final product. The generic faces of courtesan beauty in the three previously mentioned images attest to a lack of concern for the image's originality and a greater focus on simple aesthetic appeal.
    The print in the middle of the cycle is by the artist Domoto Inshu from the late 1920s. Two women carry baskets on their heads and appear to be struggling amidst a treacherous-looking landscape. As opposed to the first three, which had a rather mechanical, reproducible style, this one has a quality more closely associated with watercolor. Artists began carrying out the entire process themselves around this time, so Inshu had a lot more control over the piece. The picture is more dynamic and appears to demonstrate recognition of the artistic value of the woodblock medium, as opposed to its commercial possibilities.
    The final piece is "Maiko, Kyoto," by Saitô Kiyoshi. It is an image of a Maiko, a geisha girl who is in the process of being trained. Made in 1961, the print is a highly abstract image of the girl. Although the artist is using the traditional woodblock medium, he draws attention to the separateness of the applied colors to flatten the composition. The face of the girl is not even included; it is hinted at only by an area of white underneath her black hair. In this way, the final piece in the cycle is just as much a non-portrait as the earliest images. Kiyoshi uses this detachment to examine the dehumanization of all women who played this role in a very modern, global way. The artist not only seems to be examining Japanese traditions, but also seems to be questioning whether such ideals work in contemporary society.
    "Visions of Kyoto" shows a transformation of the woodcut medium in Japan from a way to mass produce nostalgic images which glorified the traditional Kyoto to a way in which artists examine Japanese traditions in a global context. The opening of Japan to the world meant not only an opening of ideas, but also a broader audience for artists' ideas. Woodblock proved a practical medium to advance Japan's artwork, even through periods of modernization.

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Visions of Kyoto: Scenes from Japan's Ancient Capital

Through May 31
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
465 Huntington Avenue
617-267-9300