Full Description
Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) was one of the most influential artists working in the genre of ukiyo-e, `pictures of the floating world', in late eighteenth-century Japan, and was widely appreciated for his prints of beautiful women. In this book, Julie Nelson Davis draws on a wide range of period sources, makes a close study of selected print sets and reinterprets Utamaro in the context of his times. Offering a new approach to issues of the status of the artist and the construction of gender, identity, sexuality and celebrity in the Edo period, and now in an updated edition containing a new preface and many new images, this book is a significant contribution to the field, and will be a key work for readers interested in Japanese arts and cultures.
Contents
Introduction: Utamaro, Ukiyo-e and the City of Prints
1 Constructing the Artist Known as Utamaro
2 `Pictures of Beauties' and Other Social Physiognomies
3 Behind the Brocade and Other Yoshiwara Illusions
4 Utamaro and the Feminine Spectacle
5 Making History into the Pageant of the Floating World
References
Works Cited
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Index
