Scene From Act IX

Artist Katsukawa Shunsen 勝川春扇 (Shunkō II 二代春好) (Japanese, 1762–about 1830)

Dateabout 1812

Mediumwoodblock print

Dimensions21 x 33 cm (8 1/4 x 13 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineJohn Chandler Bancroft Collection

Terms

Japanese Print

Object number1901.59.2774

Label TextUkiyo-e artists typically used a number of perspectival conventions to create the illusion of depth. This included birds-eye-view, the ground being exaggeratedly inclined, and a haze around objects in the distance. The introduction of Dutch prints to Japan had a profound impact on ukiyo-e designers, some of who began experimenting with Western forced one-point perspective (in which objects’ size are determined by how close they are to a vanishing point on the horizon). The results were uki-e, or “floating pictures.” In woodblock prints, the technique can most often be found in depictions of kabuki plays, puppet theater (bunraku), or other architectural settings that would have emphasized its use. It also had an added benefit of allowing an artist to imply a hierarchy among figures, depending on their place in the composition. Here, for example, the print uses forced one-point perspective to showcase two separate scenes; in the foreground, Honzo, a character from Chushingura (“The Treasury of Loyal Retainers”) dramatically stops his daughter’s murder by catching a spear in mid-act while an interaction of lesser importance, which is unknown, occurs in the background.

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