Japanese Popular Prints: From Votive Slips to Playing Cards

Rebecca Salter

University of Hawaii Press, Jun 30, 2006 - Art - 208 pages

In the West, Japanese woodblock printing tends to be associated with the ukiyo-e tradition and the familiar portrayals of kabuki actors or courtesan beauties. These well-known images were produced by a publisher and artist using the extraordinary skills of carvers and printers, whose identities are rarely known. The same craftsmen also produced woodblock-printed objects for use in everyday life such as decorative paper (chiyogami), votive slips (senjafuda), playing cards (karuta), and board games (sugoroku). As the market changed in the late nineteenth century, the craftsmen increasingly turned to the production of these low-value, essentially ephemeral objects. Although the prices were kept low, many were imbued with the same glorious visual sophistication that had attracted Westerners to ukiyo-e.

Approaching the subject as an artist rather than a print scholar, Rebecca Salter focuses on the craftsmen and the complex visual culture within which they worked. Through information gained from interviews with some of the remaining practitioners and analysis of the objects themselves, she builds up a picture of the quiet role woodblock played in the lives of the Japanese as they moved from the isolation of the Edo period to embrace modernization in the early twentieth century.

This book is a fascinating exploration of this area of cultural history and the numerous color illustrations encourage a playful investigation of the many threads of Japan’s visual culture.

Rebecca Salter is a well-known British printmaker. She lived in Japan for six years and is an acknowledged authority on Japanese woodblock printing. She is the author of Japanese Woodblock Printing.

Contents

• Notes: 6
• Foreword: 8
• history method context: 10
• A bnef history of pnnting in Japan: 12
• The woodblock technique: 19
• Edo society: 23
• The art of play: 28
• knowledge news views: 40
• Books: 42
• Calendars koyomi: 47
• Programmes and lists banzuke and zukushi: 51
• Newssheets kawaraban and shinbun nishikie: 58
• The art of travel maps guides and gazetteers: 62
• Advertising hikifuda: 72
• The outside world Nagasakie Yokohamae and sayae: 80
• faith fortune general wellbeing: 92
• Votive slips and exchange slips senjafuda and kokanfuda: 94
• Catfish pnnts namazue 114 Medicine pnnts baiyakue: 114
• Smallpox pnnts and measles pnnts riosoe and hashikae: 120
• Obituary pnnts shinie: 125
• leisure pleasure play: 129
• Playful pnnts and toy pnnts asobie and omochae: 132
• Board games sugoroku jurokumusashi and menko: 164
• Playing cards karuta: 183
• Decorative papers karakami chiyogami pochibukuro and futo: 193
• and finally: 202
• Artists outlines: 204
• Glossary: 205
• Selected bibliography: 207
• Index: 208

About the author

Rebecca Salter teaches at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Japanese Popular Prints: From Votive Slips to Playing Cards; A Latitude 20 book
• Author: Rebecca Salter
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press, 2006
• ISBN: 0824830830, 9780824830830
• Length: 208 pages
• Subjects: Art / Asian / General; Art / Techniques / Printmaking