Posted by Dan (24.59.72.128) on March 24, 2004 at 23:37:34:
In Reply to: Re: Ukiyoe and Women posted by Samuel Anderson on March 24, 2004 at 17:52:25:
Hi Samuel,
I was talking here about the mid-late 19th century in particular, when there are many woodblock print series on strong women as paragons of Confucian virtues such as loyalty and sacrifice. Kuniyoshi in particular stikes me as a designer who had a very different conception of women than his competitors, in his non-series bijin prints as well, where he prefers the strong type.
In book form, moral teachings for women went back into the eighteanth century, and frequently included ideal models for women to follow. Books like Onna daigaku, Onna Chouhouki and Onna kyoukun shitsukekata were big hits and are still often found.
Of course, you could argue as to whether this meant respect for women or not--it was certainly something quite the opposite (a belief in the innate immorality of women) that promoted it. But the inspirational stories in the end put forth models of ideal women, and Kuniyoshi and Chikanobu, among others, picked up on those.