Posted by Dan McKee (24.59.72.128) on March 20, 2004 at 05:31:50:
In Reply to: Japanese Drawing posted by Arnold on March 15, 2004 at 19:29:37:
Hi Arnold,
That sounds like quite an interesting piece. I'm interested in kyoka poetry, so would love to see a scan of it if you can post one.
Ukiyo-e painting is a tricky area. Moreover,many of the things that pass for original drawings (or studies like the one you described) are in fact later copies made by amateurs--rather like someone making a sketch of a painting at a contemporary museum. In a time when these works were not readily open to the public or available in reproduction, making such a sketch for memory's sake when one had the rare opportunity to see an original piece was the best one could do. The notation you describe is far more often details of existing coloration made by an amateur than a professional's notes on how he would color his painting (which makes better sense if you think about it, as painting is not something rationally planned out this way, unless by a master to guide his pupils in assisting him.) But these comments may have nothing to do with the work you describe, especially if you know the provenance of the piece.
For more on Ukiyo-e painting, I would recommend Tim Clark's "Ukiyo-e Painting in the British Museum". Clark is thorough in scholarship and the book is fairly recent. A yet more recent but somewhat less thorough work is "The Floating World: Hanging Scrolls from the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum". There are many books in Japanese on ukiyo-e painting, but this topic has been less popular outside of Japan.
Dan