19

EnglishEditionOct.23 Fri. 2020 No.19

From the Permanent Exhibition Area

From the Aesthetics of Edo Corner“Iki,” the Edo Aesthetic, Seen in Bijin-ga Prints
from the Tenmei to Kansei (1781-1800)
looking at her colleague who is still applying rouge to her lips. Whentheir preparations are complete, the geisha will stroll to the dinner party
at which they are to perform. Their kimono are the then-popular stylewith designs confined to their skirts. They walk with bare feet inwooden clogs to flaunt these iki patterns. Torii Kiyonaga depicts theirEdo-ideal slender, supple bodies in a manner now labeled “Edo Venus.”
This ukiyo-e captures the pride and resilience of the geisha getting readyto perform.

Permanent Exhibition

Knowing the Sweets and bitters of Love

Tachibana, from the Contemporary Beautiesof the Pleasure Quarters series
Torii Kiyonaga, ca. 1782–84

Among commoners living in Edo aesthetic consciousness of iki became
established in the late eighteenth century, during the Tenmei and Kansei
eras (1781-1800). In the ukiyo-e world, masters as Torii Kiyonaga,
Kitagawa Utamaro, and Tōshūsai Sharaku were working with great
creative energy. The Edo community was also experiencing the Great
Tenmei Famine and sharply rising prices in that period, and theproactive commercial policies advocated by Tanuma Okitsugu werecoming to an end. Matsudaira Sadanobu’s Kansei Reforms werebeginning, casting a gloomy shadow over the free and lively Edo spirit.
Here we explore the Edo iki nurtured in those social circumstances by
examining two ukiyo-e works.

Pleasure Quarters Pride
The women depicted in Tachibana, from the Contemporary Beauties of thePleasure Quarters series, are geisha based in the Tachibana district(present-day Higashi Nihonbashi). The painting depicts them dressing up
before they make their entrance. The woman standing in the middle isResting her chin on her hand, she stares into the distance, her eyes halfclosed. Reflective Love, from the series Anthology of Poems: The Love
Section, is an okubi-e portrait. The expression on the face and gesture withthe hand capture this beauty’s emotions in a manner that makes thisportrait of a beauty one of Kitagawa Utamaro’s masterpieces. The clean,
unadorned lines elegantly and effortlessly depict the feelings expressed inher face. Her shaved eyebrowstell us that she is a married
woman, and her hair done up in
a torobin shinoji mage chignon
indicates that she is the wife of acommoner. She is wearing akosode kimono with a small,komon, decorative pattern. The
background color is a faintly
reddish grey. Her under kimono
has a yellow and black check
pattern that, combined with thepurple tie-dyed undergarment,
enlivens the color of the handand face. In her we see a womanof a certain age and recalling thesubtleties of love.
Reflective Love, from the series
Anthology of Poems: The Love Section
Kitagawa Utamaro, ca. 1793

Sophistocated Lives
These two prints of beauties portray women whose lives personify iki,women who understand the subtleties of the worlds they inhabit. In lateeighteenth-century Edo, the term tsū (sophistocated, knowledgeable) wasused to describe this idealized type of behavior.
“Showy but not gaudy, being iki indifferently, witty but not overly”: thesense of style these beauties express was described in Kumoi-sōshi (TheBook of Kumoi) in 1781.
The themes showcased in the “World of Ukiyo-e” section of theAesthetics of Edo corner of our permanent exhibition area change frommonth to month. From Tuesday, October 20 to Monday, November 23,
the featured artist will be Torii Kiyonaga, and the works on display will
include Tachibana, from the Contemporary Beauties of the Pleasure
Quarters series.
(Curator Nishimura Naoko)

From the Permanent Exhibition Area

Historic Styles in the Meiji Era
Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo MuseumDirectorFujimori Terunobu

The permanent exhibition area at the Edo-Tokyo Museum includes, along with historic artifacts, models based on
careful research. The Tokyo Zone has a corner entitled “Tokyo in the Age of ‘Civilization and Enlightenment’.”
The scale models there, equipped with sound and movement, of “Ginza Bricktown,” “Rokumeikan,”and “Nikorai-dō” are particularly popular. Prior to the opening of the museum, its director,Fujimori Terunobu, spent many years constructing these models while he was still on the faculty of the Universityof Tokyo. Here he explains why these models, now part of the museum’s permanent exhibits, are so fascinating.

For a time after the end of World War II, Western-style buildings from the Meiji era wereconsidered old-fashioned and largely ignored. Reassessment of their value began around 1968, thecentennial celebration of the start of the Meiji Era. Now many people admire their arches anddomes, red brick and stone materials, and tasteful styles. There is, however, one barrier to deeper
understanding of these Western-style buildings.
That barrier is style. This church is in the Gothic style, this bank is Neo-Classical, this station isVictorian: each of these Western buildings was built in a specific style.
Each of these styles was defined during a particular era of European history, from the ancientGreeks on. Some were reborn or revived during the fifteenth century, the Renaissance, as novel“Neo” forms of classical styles. The Meiji era, when Japanese architects were adopting Europeanmodels, was also the final era when those historic styles were being used. It was as if, seized with an
overwhelming passion, those architects had turned over a toy box fill with historic toys, to play withwhatever spilled out.
Half a century ago, when historians of my generation were beginning to study the history ofarchitecture, we believed that the history of modern architecture in Japan could be understood
without reference to those chaotic styes originating from European. As our research progressed,
however, we came to understand that it was a mistake to ignore historic styles. We needed to know
why, out of so many possibilities, did an architect choose the one on which he based his design? TheThe Bustle of People in Front of the Chuo
Shimbunsha Building on Ginza Brick Street
Ogata Gekko, late Meiji

Replica of the Rokumeikan as it was inNovember, 1885

Replica of the Nikorai-dō as it was in the 1890schoice was surely not made without concepts or preferences. Whichever style was selected, there had
to have been a reason for it.
Let’s examine three examples of Western-style buildings from early Meiji, starting with thestyle adopted for Ginza Bricktown, whose construction was completed in 1877.
This style is called English Neo-Classic and during this era spread widely throughout regions
colonized by Britain. These buildings were designed by Irish architect Thomas Waters, whoseintention was to replicate Great Britain’s imperial colonial style. But why? Waters was, by training
a mining engineer. In Europe, that status would be lower than that of an architect. In Japan,however, he presumably wanted to enjoy working as an architect, with its higher status.
Next, let's look at the Rokumeikan, a building designed to entertain foreign guests. The roof
style is French. The porch appears to be based on the colonial veranda; its columns suggest
coconut palms. The interior decoration was Islamic. In Britain of that era, the exotic combinationof coconut palms and Islamic motifs would have evoked India.
Josiah Conder, the architect who designed the Rokumeikan, had a geographical view ofarchitectural styles. He thought that a style evoking India would be appropriate to fill the gap
between Japan and the West.
The original proposal for the Nikorai-dō (St. Nicholas Cathedral) sent from Moscow
envisioned a properly Russian Orthodox style. Conder, who was commissioned to produce thefinal design for the cathedral, kept the orthodox floor plan but eliminated the onion-shaped
dome characteristic of Russian Orthodox churches. He replaced it with an English-style roof. His
own aesthetic sensibility must not have allowed the onion-shaped dome.
In all of these examples, form and style reflect both the architects’ sensibilities andcontemporary trends.