An exhibition exploring the diverse representation of women during a unique era of Japanese printmaking is currently on show in Cambridge. Under the Kansei Reforms, (Kansei era, 1789-1801), in the late 1790s during the Edo period, the government became concerned about what they saw as excess, indulgence, and debauchery, and issued new rules for publishing, including prints. Poor harvests in the mid- to late 1780s had led to rising food prices and subsequent riots. The 1790s reform may have been prompted, in part, by the publishing of cheaply printed illustrated books that were thinly disguised lampoons of the government and their policies during this period of unrest. Ellis Tinois writes in the book Japanese Prints: Ukiyo-e in Edo (2016), ‘In the late 1790, all commercially issued prints were required henceforth to carry a small official seal that read ‘approved’ (kiwame). The presence of this seal indicated that the print design had been approved for publication by a censor appointed by the publishers’ professional association from among its members. The seal was impressed on the block-ready drawing and cut into the keyblock so that it appeared on every impression of the print. From 1791-1824 all commercially issued prints carried this seal’.
These strict reforms therefore encouraged print designers to change their design and they began to depict ordinary women doing ‘respectable’ tasks – working, playing music, and looking after children. A world away from the life of Edo’s pleasure districts. However, these pictures did not show real individuals – artists continued to depict idealised fashionable beauties, but now in wholesome situations and scenes that may have been closer to viewers’ own lives. To explore this period in Japanese prints, the exhibition has been divided into six sections: The Female Gaze, Working Women, Women in the Public Eye, Children, and Out and About and Socialising.
At the same time, poetry groups and others commissioned luxury prints – surimono – with a limited circulation. As these were privately printed and for private consumption and not seen as commercial goods, surimono print designers were able to avoid the government censors. This allowed for more glamour and eroticism to be on display, as well as the use of lavish materials and techniques like metallic pigments and blind embossing. Works by artists such as Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and Kitagawa Utamaro (circa 1756-1806) show how print designers sought new ways of creating images of beautiful women at a time when the government was concerned with public morality.
In Edo Japan, there was a separation of rank and gender, which influenced the roles women could play in Japanese society and the responsibilities they had within their communities. The cultivation of leisure was a key to raising social status as a woman. Courtesans, who worked in the pleasure quarters, were influential in setting standards in dress, hairstyles, and personal cultivation in regards to literature and the performing arts. The sophisticated art of hairdressing reached its peak during the Edo period and the elaborate styles changed so rapidly that there were eventually hundreds of different ways for women to dress their hair, which, in turn, brought an enthusiasm for hair ornaments. Like makeup, hairstyles were indicators of age, social class, marital status, or even profession. In the hierarchical class-conscious society of the Edo era, women could not freely choose their makeup or hairstyle.
Fashion may have influenced some levels of society, but there were still general strict rules in place for makeup, hairstyle, and dress in a population that was divided into distinct social classes. This distinction allowed a visitor to learn to distinguish a married woman from a young girl, a nobleman from a middle-class woman, or a high-ranking courtesan. Edo-period societies, based entirely on a hierarchical system of classes and various rules, were highly influenced by social rank, age, profession, and stages of life, so that women had to be careful in choosing their makeup or hairstyle. Fashion was not just for The Floating World of entertainment that encouraged competition in style; it also had a general social branding function that helped distinguish an individual’s status in society. But, as strict as the law was, the system did not stop the attraction of beauty, or the spirit and inventiveness with which women showed in their goal of reconciling social rules and elegance.
In this time of social upheaval, women were also encouraged to be the moral foundation of the country. The traditional notion of the Confucian family – father to son, senior to junior, husband to wife – was promoted by the government. This system gave the woman a responsibility in producing more children for an enriched family life, and then to nourish and supervise the moral well-being of the children, adding to the vision of an idealised mother.
Although it was mostly men making these alluring prints, women also bought and enjoyed them. Female consumers were drawn to scenes of everyday life where the beauty of ordinary women was celebrated. These intimate, tender and often funny scenes would have been recognisable to women then and remain familiar to us today. They also remind us that women also worked to support themselves and their families.
From promenading courtesans to women artisans at work, this collection of women in Japanese prints reveals a narrative of women from all walks of life in Edo Japan and encourages the visitor to not only explore this female gaze, but also to glimpse into these women’s lives who are portrayed doing ‘ordinary’ things – tasks that still feel recognisable today.
Until 17 November, Women in Japanese Prints, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, fitzwilliam.cam.ac.uk
