Visiting a temple dedicated to Fudo c. 1780 - 1801

Editor: So, this is Katsukawa Shuncho's "Visiting a Temple Dedicated to Fudo," a color woodblock print from around 1780-1801. It’s a really lovely scene, almost like a snapshot of daily life, and the variety of kimonos is striking. What strikes you when you look at this, perhaps focusing on the process behind it? Curator: Well, the "snapshot" impression you get belies the incredibly involved production. Think about it – each color in this print required a separate carved block of wood, meticulously registered to create the final image. That's a significant amount of labor. These weren't autonomous artists in garrets, but artisans working within a very specific material and economic framework. Editor: That’s a good point, it does appear as spontaneous at first. What were the main roles of the different people involved? Curator: There were teams involved. The publisher, the artist that created the original painting to be copied in the woodblock, the block cutter, and the printer who had to understand inks, paper types, pressure – all variables contributing to the final commodity. It raises questions about authorship and artistic intention. How do we assign value when it's such a collaborative, materially-driven process? Editor: That definitely shifts my perspective. Seeing it as a mass produced print really makes one wonder about accessibility, was it affordable? How widely were these circulated? Curator: Precisely! "Ukiyo-e", or "pictures of the floating world", was really popular culture, designed for mass consumption, especially amongst the emerging middle classes. That cheapness and availability impacted social trends by disseminating images of beauty, fashion, and even celebrity. Editor: So much is revealed if you just consider the raw materials and how they're handled. That changes how I view the aesthetic choices entirely, it connects it with everything else happening in society at that time. Curator: Absolutely. Examining the materiality dismantles the illusion of effortless artistic genius and grounds the work in a concrete social and economic reality. Editor: Thanks, that makes me appreciate all the processes of Ukiyo-e so much more. Curator: Me too. Now to go dig around to better know about the pigment analysis.