Our latest Print Room exhibition, Nana Shiomi: Her Own Interpretation, celebrates printmaker Nana Shiomi’s unique approach to the art of the woodcut. Shiomi combines autobiographical elements with references to a range of influences including her Japanese heritage, English literature and European modernism. It is a captivating selection of works generously gifted by the artist to the Gallery last year and in 201. The collection includes original woodblocks, which provide a fascinating insight into the process of creating a woodcut print.

Nana Shiomi, A Room of One’s Own – Still Life -, 2017, Woodcut print, Edition of 30, Pallant House Gallery, Presented by the Artist, © Nana Shiomi RE.

Shiomi’s work often refers to the practice of ukiyo-e, or ‘pictures of the floating world’. These were vibrant woodcut prints made during the 19^th century Edo period, featuring scenes from everyday Japan. Ukiyo-e prints were widely available and affordable, appealing to a newly affluent urban merchant class. Popular themes included actors, erotica, landscapes, heroic and folk tales. They provide both a snapshot into the interests and desires of the time and continue to be inspirational to artists all over the world from the 19^th century to now for their innovation and striking formal qualities. The Pallant House Gallery collection is home to important examples of ukiyo-e prints by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 1858), described as ‘The Artist of Mist, Snow and Rain’.[1]

These works are an invaluable resource for the study of this significant development in the history of printmaking, a strong element within the Gallery’s wider collection. The prints are part of a series Hiroshige made in the early 1830s and published in 1834, called The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (c.1831-34). This series was so popular that Hiroshige was asked to re-create it many times, in varied forms. The Tōkaidō Road was of great political, religious, military and economic significance during the Edo period, a distance of 300 miles stretching from Edo (Tokyo) to Kyoto. The Fifty-Three Stations of Hiroshige’s enchanting series refer to the post-towns along this important route.

Hiroshige Utagawa, Station 9 – Tora’s Rain at ôiso (ôiso, Tora-ga-ame), from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tôkaidô (Tôkaidô gojûsan-tsugi no uchi), c.1833 -1834, Ukiyo-e woodblock on paper, Pallant House Gallery, The Elizabeth Burney Bequest (2018).

The first of which the Gallery has in its collection is Station 9 – Tora’s Rain at Ōiso (Ōiso, Tora-ga-ame). The scene shows a group of travellers huddling from a sudden shower of rain as they enter the town of Ōiso. Ōiso was home to Tora Gozen, whose tragic story of love and death was the inspiration for a Kabuki play, and referenced in the title to Hiroshige’s print. The characters and stories of Kabuki theatre were a popular theme within ukiyo-e, a major part of city life in Edo period Japan. Hiroshige used colour within his prints to create or invoke a certain mood, such as the yellowish tinge in the stormy sky.

Hiroshige Utagawa, Station 29: Morning Mist on the Tenryu River, Mitsuke (Mitsuke tenryugawa zu) from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tôkaidô (Tôkaidô gojûsan-tsugi no uchi), c.1833 -1834, Ukiyo-e woodblock on paper, Pallant House Gallery, The Elizabeth Burney Bequest (2018).

Hiroshige’s prints are characterised by the skilful use of bokashi, or gradation printing. This can be seen to great effect in the evocation of mist and drizzle in Mitsuke, the 29^th Station of the Tōkaidō Road, also in the Gallery’s collection. Those travelling from the Kyoto-Osaka region to Edo got their first sight of Mount Fuji from this station, and so it was said to have been called “Mitsuke” or “Catching Sight”. Bokashi required the printer to apply the pigments onto a moistened woodblock so that the ink bleeds into the wet area and thus creates variations in tone, resulting in a great sense of depth. This technique creates the illusion of a shifting atmosphere of rain and fog, whilst also lending a painterly quality to the prints.

Whilst entertainment in the city was a frequent subject in ukiyo-e, the ‘culture of movement’ is most explored in Hiroshige’s landscape prints. This culture included outdoor leisure activities, pilgrimages, and sightseeing, which became popular pastimes during this period and series such as The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road provided a visual memory of such travel. Hiroshige’s landscapes show the interaction between people and nature, enjoying seasonal activities, such as flower-viewing and religious festivals.

Hiroshige Utagawa, Station 41 Miya: Festival of the Atsuta Shrine (No.41 Miya, Atsuta shinji), from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô gojûsan tsugi no uchi), 1834, Ukiyo-e woodblock on board, Pallant House Gallery, The Elizabeth Burney Bequest (2018).

The art of Hiroshige resonates with many artists within the Gallery’s collection. Rebecca Salter in particular has expressed how Japanese woodcuts have informed her practice. Like Salter however, Shiomi has made this technique her own. The title of her exhibition emphasising Shiomi’s singular and exciting approach to printmaking – Nana Shiomi: Her Own Interpretation.

You can see the exhibition in our Print Room until 13 October 2024.

References

[1] Mary McNeil Fenollosa, Hiroshige, the artist of mist, snow and rain: an essay, Atkins & Torrey, San Francisco, Vickery, 1901