USD Collaborates on Unique Japanese Art Exhibit

The University of San Diego and the San Diego Museum of Art are currently collaborating on a unique exhibition of Japanese Woodblock prints (or Ukiyo-e) spanning over 250 years from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Featuring over 400 Ukiyo-e prints the collection is one of the museum’s most extensive, if least well-known, collections and is simply stunning.

The San Diego Museum of Art will be exhibiting the Ukiyo-e woodcuts both thematically, as well as using them to take visitors on a chronological tour of Japanese culture and history. Ukiyo-e translates literally as ‘floating world’ and the art form represents an attempt to capture on print a sense of the impermanent and timeless nature of beauty and an evanescent world. Common motifs in traditional Ukiyo-e woodcuts were tales from history, landscapes (depictions of Mount Fuji are among the most famous works), seascapes and scenes from both the theatre and the pleasure quarters. The arrangement of the prints is also complemented by a number of historically relevant artifacts, such as elegant coral Japanese hairpins, and by the simultaneous broadcast of a five act play relating the story of Yoshitsune, a famous samurai from the period.

Check out this Flickr stream to see several of the items on display.

The highlights of the exhibition are a number of key works by Japan’s most feted woodblock print artists, Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige. Indeed the works of Hiroshige are displayed in all their full glory over at the University of San Diego’s Robert and Karen Hoehn Galleries where, in the first of two rotations, they are currently showing the complete series of Hiroshige’s ‘Famous Views of the Sixty-Odd Provinces’ of 1853-56. This series represented a stunning highpoint for the art of Ukiyo-e and includes some of the genre’s most important works, particularly the powerful and sublime ‘Naruto Whirlpools at Awa Province’ (pictured).

Consisting of sixty-nine prints (one for each province in Japan plus Edo and the two islands) the breadth of Hiroshige’s subject matter is incredible. Essentially a visual record of his travels over twenty years criss - crossing the Japanese countryside, Hiroshige chose to concentrate on depicting everyday Japanese life (from basket ferries carrying travelers to temple festivals) and not indulge in the usual woodcuts celebrating the grandeur of Daimyo’s processions. Hiroshige preferred to capture moments of exceptional natural beauty from each province, whether that was a picturesque river, a captivating ravine or a famous mountain.

The Sixty Odd Provinces series is even more interesting because it also shows a progression in the artist’s style as he developed his famous vertical format. This allowed Hiroshige to try differing contrasts between background and foreground in an attempt to pull the viewer into sweeping panoramic landscapes. With images of everything from town centers to bucolic countryside it offers exquisite snapshots of Japan during the Edo era and is one of the most impressive series of Ukiyo-e you will ever see. In combination with the collection at the Museum of Art it represents one of the finest exhibitions to grace San Diego in recent years. Unmissable.

For more details check out the San Diego Museum of Art website.

This is a series of articles by Sharyn and Victoria Crown, Downtown San Diego real estate agents.