Three Centuries of Japanese Women Artists

Triumphing over Real Odds

A unique combination of political, social, and economic factors in Japan led to the flourishing of women artists during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, despite the fact that women's position in Japan's patriarchal society was theoretically very low. Women artists came from diverse segments of society, worked in many schools and traditions, and created artworks displaying a wide range of styles. They earned the plaudits of their peers and were important figures in both literary and artistic circles.

The reasons for the increase of women artists during the Edo period (1600-1868) are manifold. After nearly a century of civil war, Japan was enjoying an age of peace and prosperity. As affluence spread to the middle and lower classes new patrons and new schools of art developed. Women's participation in art and literature was also abetted by the spread of education; the growth of private and clan schools stimulated learning and literacy among all classes. Women who were educated were more likely than others to move beyond the socially approved roles of wife and mother.

Traditional Roles

Most of the women who broke away from traditional roles and achieved recognition as artists were members of the non-aristocratic classes. This is not to say that women from the court or upper-ranking samurai families were not gifted. There were a number of outstanding noblewomen artists, but they were outnumbered by those who led less restricted lives.

Women were active in several ateliers, but were most prominent in those of the Kano school and ukiyo-e artists. Kiyohara Yukinobu (1643-1682) was the most celebrated female painter working in the Kano school tradition. She was the daughter of Kusumi Morikage, a leading Kano school master. He must have encouraged Yukinobu's artistic talents, and permitted her to adopt this male-dominated vocation. As a professional Kano painter, Yukinobu was trained in the academic Chinese styles used for painting landscapes, flowers and birds, and figures. She was also adept in the decorative Japanese style known as yamato-e, which was traditionally used for rendering narrative tales or portraits.

Yukonobu's range was diverse, including Buddhist deities like the apsara in plate 2. This type of flying divinity is usually shown hovering around a Buddha, which suggests that this painting may originally have been part of a triptych. Yukinobu's apsara descends amid swirling clouds, arms outstretched in preparation to strike a musical note. The celestial deity is garbed in robes decorated with intricate gold brocade patterns, rendered with the sensitivity and precision that won Yukinobu public acclaim.

Because of the relative freedom of behavior in the urban pleasure quarters, ukiyo-e artists tended to be more receptive to having female apprentices than were traditional art workshops. Among the many women ukiyo-e artists who achieved a degree of success were Yamazaki Ryu-jo, Katsushika Oi, and Kakuju-jo. Mirroring the interests of their clientele, they focused their attention on life in the amusement quarters, taking as their subjects kabuki actors and courtesans. Ryu-jo, also known as Joryu, was the daughter of a samurai serving the shogunate in Edo (now Tokyo). Most of her known paintings depict fashionable courtesans such as the example in plate 9(Gallery). The theme of a beauty standing beneath a tree had been popular for centuries in Asia. Here Ryu-jo has painted the landscape setting almost entirely with ink, causing the brightly colored kimono of the courtesan to stand out vividly. The lineament defining the contours of her robes is strong and fluid. In typical Japanese fashion, the scene is permeated with a mood of melancholy, with the courtesan staring wistfully at the blossoms that have already fallen to the ground. She is reminded that life is transitory, especially within the "floating world" that is her milieu.

Accepting Women

By the nineteenth century, several of the leading male ukiyo-e artists were readily accepting women into their studios. Two of Hokusai's daughter achieved a respectable degree of fame. Oi (active 1818-1854) was the better known, producing formal and informal paintings as well as book illustrations. Plate 4 is representative of her more informal style, exhibiting free and spontaneous brushwork. Oi was a master at conveying the essence of her subject in this sort of sketchilike work. With brush in hand, the slender courtesan intently fills a long paper scroll with her elegant calligraphy; most likely she is writing a lover letter. Oi achieved artistic variety through contrasting gray washes with dry, rough outlines, and by employing darker ink as accents.

In addition to paintings, women ukiyo-e artists were also involved in the design and production of woodblock prints. Kakuju-jo is one of the rare female artists who actually had a woman for a teacher; she is recorded as having studied with Tsunoda Kunisada' female pupil Sadaka-me. Kakuju-jo's known prints without exception depict episodes from the popular kabuki drama. Her diptych illustrated here (plates 11 and 12, Gallery) represents a scene from Chushingura, the famous tale of the revenge of forty-seven samurai. Kakuju-jo's choice of vivid coloring gives the pair of prints much of its impact. Her stylized treatment of the figures, with their long oval faces and pointed chins, is clearly within the Kunisada tradition.

The great majority of Japanese women who succeeded as artists were also talented poets. Because so many noblewomen of earlier ages were renowned for their novels, dairies, and poetry, the Edo-period literary world was prepared to accept women. Waka verse (composed of thirty-one syllables, arranged in five lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables) was deemed the most suitable for women. Those who won the most popular acclaim did so because their talents were visible to the public. Many were courtesans, employed in one of the few vocations in which intelligent women of the plebian classes were encouraged to display their talents. Within this profession there were many levels: At the bottom were low-class prostitutes, but at the top were exceptionally talented women skilled in traditional poetry, calligraphy, and painting.

Collectors and connoisseurs sought out verses written by eminent courtesans like Ohashi, who was active in he mid-eighteenth century. In her waka on decorated paper (plate 8, Gallery), Ohashi has positioned her poem beautifully, the lines of writing bridging the division between the upper blue field and the plain paper below. Heavily inked strings of characters are deftly balanced against lighter ones created when her brush began to run dry. By beginning and ending her lines at irregular levels, Ohashi was continuing a style known as chirashi gaki or "scattered writing." Her poem refers to the inevitable parting between lovers at dawn, and the sadness that follows.

Kinuginu no
Wakare wa yume ni
Nariyuke to
Ukarishi tori no
Ne koso wasurene

["On the morning after,
Let your parting
Be like a dream."
I cannot forget
The wretched cry of the bird.]

Not Only Courtesans

It was not only courtesans, however, who were recognized for the artistry of their waka. Many other women of non-aristocratic birth, such as Otagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875), achieved fame. Rengetsu stands out among the female waka poet because of the elegant style of calligraphy she developed, exemplified here in a tall, thin form of poem sheet called a tanzuku (plate 3). These were favored by the Japanese for writing out short verses; the paper was often dyed beautiful colors and/or decorated with gold and silver printed designs. Rengetsu's brushwork is unique, displaying slender lines with only subtle variations in thickness. At first glance, her threadlike writing may appear delicate and restrained, but it is packed with inner tension, often described as resembling a coiled spring.

As women became better educated, their artistic possibilities increased. They were encouraged by many male scholars and poets to join haiku and Chinese poetry societies. One of the best known women haiku poet-painters was Kikusha (1753-1826). Her orchid (plate 5) is accompanied by a haiku, which reads:

Amari sakite
Kaori wasurezo
Ran no hana
[While blooming too much
Do not forget your fragrance,
Orchid flowers.]

Kikusha's boundless energy is echoed in the vigorous rhythm in the descending lines of writing as well as in the orchid leaves and flowers. The blossoms are imbued with such sprightly movement that they resemble winged insects about to take flight. A symbol of modesty and purity, the orchid became a popular subject among amateur painters because the form of this plant lent itself to calligraphic brushwork.

Many female poets habitually added simplified paintings to their verses. Painting and poetry were not considered to be two distinct art forms in traditional Japan, but instead were frequently united. Poets were almost always skilled calligraphers, and it was an easy step from calligraphy to painting, since the two art forms share similar brush techniques. Professional skill was not a mater of great importance in many Japanese literary circles; what was important was the inner character of the artist that was visible in his or her brushwork. Until the late nineteenth century, very few women were simply painters, as was common in the male-dominated art world. This extremely strong link with literature is an important feature of art by Japanese women.

By far the largest number of recognized women artists emerged from the growing ranks of Japanese who avidly studied Chinese poetry and painting. Interest in the Chinese literati tradition was stimulated in Edo-period Japan by the government's promotion of Neo-Confucianism, which led to the study of many facets of Chinese culture. By the latter part of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, literati painting (termed bunjinga or nanga in Japan), enjoyed widespread popularity among a broad segment of the urban and rural population.

Women Literati

Many women literati painters were are wives, sisters, or daughters of artists working in the Chinese tradition. They painted nature subjects primarily, with landscape being the dominant theme because it reflected the scholar-artists' yearning to achieve a spiritual communion with nature. Ko Rajkin, who was active late in the eighteenth century, created elegant landscape paintings featuring exquisite detailed brushwork and formal compositional beauty, exemplified in her Landscape with Fisherman (plate 7, Gallery). A tiny figure peacefully fishes from his boat, dwarfed by the surrounding mountains and their thick, luxuriant foliage. Rajkin depicted the mountains with dry, textured mountains with dry, textured strokes, over which she laid light washes of blue, green, and peach. She was especially skillful at blending the different colors together to create subtly rich hues.

Ema Saiko (1787-1861) was celebrated for her Chinese-style verse and bamboo paintings (plate 10, Gallery). This subject had long been favored by literati who admired the plant's strength and ability to endure. Because it stays green all year long and bends in the wind but does not break, bamboo was compared to virtuous old gentlemen, with their ability to withstand hardship. Saiko's brushwork forming the bamboo is crisp and deliberate, imbued with the strength that connoisseurs have long referred to as "bone.' She varied the tonality of her ink, presenting the bamboo closest to us in rich black ink and gradually lightening the tones to create the illusion of receding planes.

Shunsa's brushwork and the subdued application of her pale color washes imbuses this "gentleman" with the mild yet firm spirit long admired by literati. She added a quatrain that reads:

In the pure wind and white dew floats a solitary fragrance
Only the chrysanthemums can be seen on
this cold evening
Whereupon I recall the poetry of the
Ancients
And in these surroundings forget all of
my worldly ambitions.

Unlike most women artists, who developed their artistic talents over long years of practice and dedication, Takai Okon (1816-1888) was a prodigy who reached the height of her fame around the age of nine. In that year she was invited to demonstrate her calligraphic skills for the imperial court and was rewarded with gifts from the emperor. Okon became renowned for her cursive Chinese script (plate 6). The fundamental principle underlying this script is to write each character as quickly and simply as possible while still conveying the structural essence of its form. Perhaps no other traditional visual art in the world is as kinesthetically exciting.

Celebrating Women's Artistry

By the late nineteenth century, there were many women artists active who did not come from artistic or scholarly families, indicating that the art world was further opening its doors to women. One of the most important female artists of this age was Noguchi Shohin (1847-1917), here represented by a painting of Women Practicing Arts in a Garden (plate 1). This scroll celebrates the artistry of women. From the top of the scroll to the bottom, Shohin has depicted women playing instruments, listening to music, reading books, painting, and making tea. The subject matter recalls scenes of Chinese scholars amusing themselves in garden settings. Shohin has created a playful variation upon this theme by depicting Japanese women instead of men; she may have wanted to express her feelings that females could be just, as talented and intellectually oriented as their male counterparts. The delicate brushwork and coloring combine here to produce a work of extraordinarily refined beauty. As exemplified by this scroll, the ultimate significance of Japanese women artists lies in the richness and diversity they added to oriental art.