Glossary of Ukiyo-e Colorants

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1778-1794 (19-35 yrs old) 28 prints

As Katsukawa Shunro until he leaves the Katsukawa school. Wide variety, from actor prints, book illustrations, toy prints, meisho, religious, etc.


1794-1804 (35-45 yrs old) 25 prints

As Sori produces lots of surimonos and illustrations for poetry books. In 1798, he changes to Hokusai Tokimasa which denotes his independence from any school style. But overall until 1804 his style is considered Sori style (Rinpa).

Sôri ga 宗理画

Sôri aratame Hokusai ga 宗理改北斎画

Gakyôjin Hokusai ga 画狂人北斎画

Kakô ga 可候画



1804-1811 (45-52 years old)

Mainly works on book illustrations and paintings. Uses Katsushika Hokusai as well as Taito.

1812-1829 (53-60 yrs old): Starts producing illustration books for artists/students. Uses Iitsu from 1818-1830 when he produces a lot of surimonos.


1830-1833 (71-74 yrs old): Produces his well known prints such as landscape, bird and flower prints, etc.


1834-1849 (75-90yrs old): Concentrates on paintings. Uses the Manji

Unknown



Glossary of Colorants

The purpose of the ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock) colorant database is to document the types of colorants that were used in the printing process. In order to do this, we started the research by making reference samples of the known Ukiyo-e colorants by traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques. This database currently focuses on prints from the MFA’s collection especially from 1710-1850. We hope to continue adding to the database but at this moment covers only the colorants found in the above mentioned time frame so does not yet cover the whole breadth of colorants, especially the synthetic one that were added in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Red

The primary organic red colorants used in the prints are: -Safflower -Madder -Sappanwood

Yellow

Orpiment, turmeric and flavonoid yellows (such as pagoda tree, rice plant) are the most commonly used yellow colorants that were easily detected. Gamboge is also likely to have been used but none of the MFA analysis techniques could detect gamboge. Additionally there is literature that points to the potential use of other organic yellows, such as yellowwood, but this has not been found in any of the prints so far.

Of the primary yellows, orpiment (arsenic sulfide) was detected by the X-ray fluorescence analysis. Turmeric and yellowwood both fluoresce very brightly in ultraviolet light and, luckily, give very distinctive EEM spectra (shown below). Some of the other organic yellows, like pagoda tree and rice plant, but fluoresce weakly in ultraviolet light. Chemically, these two compounds are both flavonoids and and only have slight differences in their EEM plots. Thus, the decision was made to call them by their chemical name, Flavonoid, to minimize mistakes in identification.

Blue

Until the introduction of Prussian blue, indigo and dayflower were the only blues used. These blues can easily be identified using FORS. -Indigo -Dayflower -Prussian blue

Green

Green is created as a mixture or overprinting of a blue and yellow. -Indigo/orpiment -Other combinations (List maybe just the common ones and other could be Others)

Purple

Purple is created as a mixture or overprinting of a blue and red/pink. -Safflower/dayflower -Madder/dayflower -Other combinations

Brown

-hematite -red lead -mixtures --faded purple

White

White is often used in a mixture rather than on its own, allowing for the paper to be the “white” -calcium carbonate -white lead

Black/Gray

Carbon black, sumi, or soot from oil lamps or pine soot mixed with animal glue is used to print the key block as well as any other black area. It can range from a deep black to a blue grey color (pine soot).

Mica

description

Metallic

Description