Woodblock Prints Research Articles

Off-gassing Woodblock Prints - Storage Impact Considerations and Mitigation Strategies -

The storage environment of a Japanese woodblock print collection was assessed for organic acids. The active air sampling method was used to collect organic acid emissions in the low microgram range from areas of a selected woodblock print with different pigments, following which an off-gassing mitigation strategy based on the fan filter unit(FFU) system was investigated. Research findings revealed that the off-gassing behavior of woodblock prints is significantly impacted by storage practices and to a lesser degree by the pigments. The FFU system can be used as a mitigation strategy, but the permanence of the results depends on the storage conditions.

釋名의 板本과 體制 연구

釋名의 板本과 體制 연구

Revealing the colours of ukiyo-e prints by short wave infrared range hyperspectral imaging (SWIR)

Japanese woodblock prints, also known as ukiyo-e prints, were mainly produced during the 18th and the 19th centuries. Japanese printers, colours-skilled craftsmen, used a palette composed of traditional pigments (indigo, red safflower or orpiment for instance). This palette was enriched during the 19th century with new pigments such as Prussian blue or, later, with aniline red and violet.Ukiyo-e generally display a vivid and varied hues of colours, obtained from pure colourants or mixtures of pigments. In order to reveal the colouring materials used by Japanese printers, hyperspectral imaging, in both visible and near-infrared ranges (400–1000 nm and 1000–2500 nm) was performed on a triptych designed by Kunisada/Tokugawa III, edited in 1855. This print, composed of three distinct panels, offers a dozen hues from light red to a deep violet.The aim of this work is to assess the information obtained by the hyperspectral camera in the near-infrared range and reinforce data acquired in the visible range. Indeed, the visible spectra are generally useful for the identification of pure colours but are less relevant in the case of mixtures or for some pigments, as for example Prussian blue. Usually used for the identification of binders, near-infrared spectra are also of interest for the colours and may be useful to support and complete hyperspectral data in the visible range, such as Prussian blue mapping.

板本『一すんほうし』考 : 文と絵について

板本『一すんほうし』考 : 文と絵について

Maximilian Voloshin’s japanese print collection in the context of european orientalism

The paper is concerned with Maksimilian Voloshin’s Japanese woodblock print collec-tion. It starts with a short historical sketch of Orientalism in Europe and Russia, illustrating various highlights and the evolution of the image of the East in the minds of Europeans, and designed so that the emergence of Voloshin’s interest in Japanese art and his activity of collecting Ukiyo-e prints can be considered in the context of European Orientalism.

Utagawa Hiroshige and New Year's Eve Foxfires at Nettle Tree, Ōji from NATURE/SUPERNATURE: Visions of This World and Beyond in Japanese Woodblock Prints

Utagawa Hiroshige and New Year's Eve Foxfires at Nettle Tree, Ōji from NATURE/SUPERNATURE: Visions of This World and Beyond in Japanese Woodblock Prints Meher McArthur (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) New Year's Eve Foxfires at Nettle Tree, Ōji, no. 118 from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Edo period (1603–1868), 1857. Full-color woodblock print, ink on paper 13 ¼ in. x 8 ⅝ in. (33.65 cm. x 21.91 cm.). Scripps College Collection, Gift of Mrs. James W. Johnson, 46.1.108. Meher McArthur is Art and Cultural Director, JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles and the curator of NATURE/SUPERNATURE: Visions of This World and Beyond in Japanese Woodblock Prints (February 15, 2021–May 31, 2021). Image courtesy of Scripps College, Claremont, CA. [End Page 154] The Japanese have long believed that spiritual or supernatural beings inhabit nature and have a profound impact on human life. Depending on how humans behave toward nature and each other, these forces can be benign or destructive. In the late Edo (1603–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods, natural landscapes and the spiritual beings inhabiting them became popular themes in woodblock prints. Such prints were the focus of NATURE/SUPERNATURE: Visions of This World and Beyond in Japanese Woodblock Prints, an exhibition held at JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles from February to May 2021. The exhibition featured two main groups of supernatural beings: kami and yōkai. Broadly speaking, kami are spiritual beings that reside in particular places and elements of nature and control nature. Respecting the kami by worshipping them at shrines, offering them food and drink and holding festivals in their honor ensures their support and protection, while dishonor and neglect can invite natural disasters. Yōkai are also thought to impact people's lives in both positive and negative ways. These "mysterious apparitions" can be shape-shifting animals, trickster spirits, ghosts, demons, or monsters. In many Japanese folk tales and legends, careless or cruel behavior toward other humans, animals, and nature can bring about wicked, destructive yōkai (such as demons, angry ghosts, and monsters), while kindness is rewarded by these creatures. In Japanese folklore, foxes (kitsune) are associated with the kami of the rice harvest, but they can also be yōkai attributed with supernatural powers like shapeshifting, bewitching, and possession. In Japanese texts from the early 700s, foxes were described as benign and auspicious. They were spotted in the rice fields catching the mice who eat the rice, so were seen as protectors of the rice crop—even rice deities. Soon after, they were considered messengers of Inari, the kami of the rice harvest, and at shrines to Inari, the presence of the deity is suggested by stone statues of foxes. At some point during the Heian period (794–1185), tales of wicked foxes, who trick, bewitch, and possess [End Page 155] men were introduced into Japan from Chinese and Korean lore, adding complexity to the character of the kitsune. In this print, New Year's Eve Foxfires at Nettle Tree, Ōji by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), we see foxes gathering under a tree at nighttime. The print is from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, designed during the final two years of the artist's life. The prints spotlighted popular places in the capital city Edo (modern Tokyo) and often featured details relating to traditional beliefs and practices. Here, Hiroshige portrays the natural landscape at Ōji in northern Edo, a site associated with Inari. Many Edoites visited the large Inari Shrine at Ōji in the springtime to pray for an abundant harvest in the fall. Since wealth was measured in units of rice during the Edo period, the deity also became the god of financial prosperity. Tradition also held that on New Year's Eve, sacred foxes from all regions gathered under the nettle tree at Ōji. These foxes were believed to carry torches in their mouths creating kitsune-bi, or "fox fires." Local farmers predicted the success of the coming year's crops by the brightness of these fires. In this particular print, Hiroshige imagines the mysterious atmosphere of a gathering of sacred foxes...

The Mystical Spirit of Japan – Stefan Łubieński and Transnational Artistic Networks in 1920s Japan

Stefan Łubieński (1893–1976), composer, fine artist, diplomat, spiritual seeker, and thinker, was a Polish nobleman, follower of Anthroposophy and author of such books as Ways to Spiritual Light and Man between Microcosm and Macrocosm. With his first wife, Zina Łubieńska, he resided in Japan in the first half of the 1920s. Although Łubieński published his autobiography and the names of the two Poles were mentioned at that time, the time they spent in Japan has not yet been analysed by scholars. This article is an attempt to unravel the Łubieńskis’life in Japan and show how it is placed in the context of Japanese culture in the 1920s. Furthermore, it will document the ways the Łubieńskis operated within the transnational network of Theosophists that spread among artists, foreign and Japanese alike, as a way to meet and exchange ideas. One of the circles the Łubieńskis joined, together with Noémi and Antonín Raymond, was the Garakutashū(en. “Circle for the Study of Odd Things and Junk”), a casual setting for open discussion about passion for collecting objects, hobbies, and a shared interest in Japanese arts such as woodblock printing, calligraphy, and ink painting. The transnational method used in this article foregrounds the importance of thinking through a lens highlighting transnational networks and enables us to recognize the Łubieńskis as a part of the Theosophical Society (TS), Garakutashū, and other networks of modern Japan.

The Chinese Classical Novel “Dream in the Red Chamber” in the Woodblock Illustrated Editions and Popular Woodblock Prints from the Collections of Saint Petersburg

The study focuses on the illustrated woodblock editions of the renown Chinese classical novel Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Хueqin (1715–1763), as well as albums and popular woodblock prints (or nianhua 年畫) featuring protagonists and scenes from the novel. The books and popular prints discussed in this study were found at the Oriental Section of the M. Gorky Academic Library (Saint Petersburg State University) and Russian museums: the State Hermitage, the State Museum of the History of Religion, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography RAS etc. Aim of the study is to reveal specific methods of portraying scenes and protagonists in book illustrations and popular prints and explain their differences. While illustrated books should have met tastes of the literate audience, popular woodblocks were appreciated by both illiterate and literate rural and urban population, who primarily valued their auspicious meaning. The paper shows differences between book illustrations and woodblock prints, revealing connections between albums and popular prints. The latter even though followed old conventions of composition, line and coloring received stylistic influence of the recognized painter Gai Qi (1773–1828) and his album with portraits of female protagonists (1879). Another painter Qian Huian (1833–1911) was invited to help printing houses with setting standards of depicting scenes from the novel. It is worth mentioning thatartists who produced popular prints at Yangliuqing had favorite themes, scenes and protagonists, which met the tastes of wide public.

Editing Pipa Ji for the Late Ming Popular Theater: The Identity of the "Singing Hermit" and His Editorial Work

Editing Pipa Ji for the Late Ming Popular Theater:The Identity of the "Singing Hermit" and His Editorial Work* Peng Xu This essay is an investigation—combining biography, close reading, cultural history, and imaginative reasoning typical of the Sinological kaozheng scholarship—into a case of drama publishing during the late Ming publishing boom, from the 1570s to the 1630s.1 It concerns patterns in drama editing, piracy in drama publishing, and clues to the puzzle of authorship. We know remarkably more about late Ming print culture in general than about drama publishing in particular. This essay fills in a gap of our current book history about the modus operandi of drama publishing through a detective story about how the manuscript of a revision of Pipa ji (The Lute) was acquired and published posthumously. The drama edition under discussion is one of the thirteen Ming editions of Pipa ji, the literary landmark of southern drama or chuanqi attributed to Gao Ming (ca. 1305–59).2 This particular edition, entitled Bojie dingben (The Story of Bojie, Definitive Edition), was published by [End Page 159] Bidong shanfang (Bidong Mountain Villa) in the early 1620s.3 On the first page of each juan of Bojie dingben, the author/editor's pseudonym is inscribed as Panke shuoren (Singing Hermit), under the general heading of Citan qingwan (Idle Pleasures in the Forum of Songs), from which the Singing Hermit derived his other pseudonym, Citan zhuren (Master of the Forum of Songs). The major pseudonym, Panke shuoren, alludes to a poem in the classic poetry collection Shijing (The Book of Songs), said to have been compiled by Confucius.4 This allusion also has political undertones that suggest a Daoist pursuit of estranging oneself from the government, which was popular among late Ming literati.5 The secondary pseudonym, Master of the Forum of Songs, corresponds to the text of the book in that the views of several other commentators are recorded in the margins, suggesting that the Singing Hermit collaborated with a closeknit group of friends. Two features make this particular edition stand out among all thirteen Ming editions of Pipa ji. First, the layout. As is shown in figure 1, above the main text of Pipa ji, almost one third of the page is devoted to eyebrow comments (meipi), what I would call "printed marginalia" (to distinguish it from the book owner's handwritten comments in the margins), consisting of the Singing Hermit's editorial commentaries on musicological and dramaturgical concerns. This two-register arrangement with eyebrow comments above and the main text below is reminiscent [End Page 160] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Page layout of Bojie dingben, 1:1a, woodblock print, ca. 1620s. The eyebrow comments in the printed marginalia take up almost one third of the space, a rarely seen large register among late Ming annotated full-text drama editions. On the first page of each juan of Bojie dingben the author/editor's pseudonym is inscribed as the Singing Hermit, under the general heading of citan qingwan (Idle Pleasures in the Forum of Songs), from which the Singing Hermit derived his other pseudonym, Citan zhuren (Master of the Forum of Songs). of popular drama miscellanies (mostly printed in a cheaper manner) and song formulas (mostly exquisitely made). It is nevertheless rarely seen among the late Ming annotated full-text drama editions. This design itself might be conventional, but its application to a full-length play as opposed to an anthology of excerpted scenes or song suites was a novelty. Whoever the Singing Hermit was, he spoke volubly about his all-important musicological and dramaturgical decisions to make his voice and his friends' voices distinct, loud, and authoritative so that no reader could afford to ignore them. To give readers a sense of what a standard full-text drama edition looks like, I juxtapose Bojie dingben with a more standard annotated edition of Pipa ji, also produced by Bidong Mountain Villa in the early 1620s. The latter has a narrow strip at the top for glosses and brief comments. In the first half of this essay, I will focus on a close [End Page 161] Click for larger view View...

Иллюстрированные издания и народные картины няньхуа к новеллам Пу Сунлина

The paper studies connections between the illustrated lithographic edition of Pu Songling’s 蒲松齡 (1640–1715) “Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio with annotations, poems, and illustrations” (詳註聊齋誌異圖詠Xiangzhu liaozhai zhiyi tuyong, 1886), a collection of illustrations by Shanghai publishing house Tongwenshuju 同文書局 and several popular woodblock prints 年畫 nianhua found in Russian collections (Peter the Great Museum of Ethnography and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, State Hermitage, Geographic Society) in order to learn how Pu Songling’s stories circulated in the society of late Qing China, and the perception of literature written in classical language by the wider public. The conclusions are that the aforementioned illustrated lithographic edition may have prompted creation of woodblock prints based on Pu Songling’s stories, where nianhua artists borrowed poetic inscriptions and composition of the lithographic illustrations. The small amount of such prints in comparison with those illustrating classical Ming-Qing novels such as Romance of The Three Kingdoms 三國演義, Journey to the West 西遊記, Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 allows to suggest that novels remained the favourite among the literati, while illiterate consumers of popular prints could appreciate their auspicious meaning more than the story. The fact that majority of the discovered nianhua pictures were produced at the oldest and largest printing shops in Yangliqing 楊柳青 – Dai lianzeng 戴廉增 and Qi jianlong 齊健隆 famous for their fine artistic quality proves that their customer base was mostly comprised of wealthier and more literate public.

Printing and Publishing in East Asia through circa 1600: An Extremely Brief Survey

Printing and Publishing in East Asia through circa 1600An Extremely Brief Survey Lucille Chia Introduction The history of book culture and printing in East Asia shows how different cultures that used the same manuscript and print techniques to produce many of the same books in the same language (Chinese) developed distinctive book cultures. This essay focuses on China and compares its book culture with those of Korea and Japan, from the inception of woodblock printing around the late seventh century until about 1600. Other peoples were also heavily influenced throughout history by Chinese culture in East Asia and Inner Asia, such as the Mongols, Khitans, Tanguts, and Uighurs. We should note, however, that some of the peoples in this vast area adopted and modified the Chinese writing system, even if their languages were very different from Chinese. They also used printing technologies from China—both woodblock and movable type, often within a century of the development of a writing system for their own languages. The history of the uses of printing technologies and their adoption and adaptation in different cultures therefore helps us understand the nature of technologies in general. China Printing can be described as a method by which texts and images prepared on a master form are transferred by being impressed onto a receiving surface. Printing is thus an extremely ancient process that ranges from the cylindrical seals of the fourth millennium BCE used in Mesopotamia to a wide variety of later methods that could [End Page 129] produce a three- or two-dimensional impression using inks, dyes, or pigments. Both the master form, prepared in relief or intaglio, and the receiving surface could be made from a variety of materials. The printed text or image could then be used for different purposes—to record information, to disseminate information, to assert authority, to indicate confidentiality, to convey religious or talismanic power, etc. Printing therefore is not synonymous with publishing, or the broadcasting of information. Woodblock Printing (Xylography) The idea for block printing develops easily from using seals to make impressions, a practice known in China as early as the Shang period (ca. 1500–1050 BCE). The earliest extant seals, dating from the late Zhou Dynasty (ca. 1050–256 BCE), were made of stone, earthenware, metals, horn, etc., and could be used to make impressions on clay, silk, and other surfaces.1 Most of these seals were used to authenticate the identity and authority of an individual or organization, but some from the first or second century CE also served religious and magical purposes. Textual accounts suggest seals were used to protect occupants of tombs, and we also have records about the apotropaic use of seals carved from peachwood from the first century CE, and descriptions of Daoist seals from the fourth century. Buddhist texts, such as one from the fifth century, describe “devil-subduing seals” as well as impressions of the Buddha’s image for devotional purposes. Moreover, the impressions were not necessarily made on silk or paper but on soft clay, sand, or even human skin.2 A different application of block printing in China was its use in dyeing textiles, for which we have brass blocks from the second century BCE and one anecdotal account describing a dye-resist method using woodblocks in the eighth century CE.3 Scholars have suggested that these different methods of making impressions on a variety of surfaces may have led to the development of block printing on paper. Equally important for multiple replication of text and image by printing is the availability of a pliant, absorbent surface that could be cheaply produced—paper. Although the earliest extant paper dates to the first or second century BCE,4 historical tradition credits a Han Dynasty official named Cai Lun in the second century CE with developing high-quality paper suitable for writing and painting. Although [End Page 130] the method of block printing may easily have been inspired by earlier technologies that applied ink or dye on a given material, xylography differed sufficiently from these other processes that it may not have been immediately obvious as a means of replicating text and image on paper for the purpose of making multiple...

East Asian Cartographic Print Culture: The Late Ming Publishing Boom and Its Trans-Regional Connections by Alexander Akin

Reviewed by: East Asian Cartographic Print Culture: The Late Ming Publishing Boom and Its Trans-Regional Connections by Alexander Akin D. Jonathan Felt (bio) Alexander Akin. East Asian Cartographic Print Culture: The Late Ming Publishing Boom and Its Trans-Regional Connections. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021. 318 pp. Hardcover $146.00, isbn 9789463726122. Alexander Akin's monograph, East Asian Cartographic Print Culture, examines cartography and its relationship to the publishing boom of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Its main argument is that "what changed in late Ming cartography is context and quantity more than technology" (p. 36). There were few significant technological innovations in the process of creating or printing maps during this period. But maps proliferated on the printed page to an unprecedented extent. Not only were more books being printed in general, but there were also more types of book that included maps, and the average number of maps in these books increased as well. The remarkable breadth of this map production "reflected the diversity of their users' social interests, spreading far beyond the administration of the state or the training of future functionaries" (p. 36). Akin, furthermore, traces exported Ming publications to Korea and Japan, their reception there, and the return flow of cartographic texts back to China. Akin's approach is distinctive in its usage and breadth of maps. First, his sources are not magnificent court-sponsored wall maps of limited circulation, but the crudely produced woodblock prints that were used as illustrations in mass-produced books. This allows him to examine maps in their greatest breadth of genres and diversity of uses, from the highest to the humblest registers. Second, because he is examining maps published in books, he reads maps as "illustrations to the text rather than as independent documents" (p. 17). This builds upon the argument of Cordell Yee that, in contrast to European maps, Chinese maps and text were intended to be read together. Akin reads the accompanying text as essential in understanding details not included on the map but intended to be understood through the map. This reveals how the same copied map could be used within different genres for a variety of purposes. From this argument and methodology, Akin makes three interventions into larger historiographic debates that would be of interest to scholars both inside and outside of East Asian studies. First, contrary to the idea that "Confucian [End Page 95] geography" dominated Chinese cartographic thought, Akin shows that late Ming cartography was characterized by a "diversity of coexisting schools of cartographic thought and practice" (p. 15). The proliferation of new works facilitated exposure to Confucian, Buddhist, and Jesuit worldviews, and these contradictory world maps were presented together, without the need to assert a single dogmatic cartographic orthodoxy. Second, Akin examines the very famous world maps of Matteo Ricci from within the context of an already existing, diverse, and productive Chinese cartographic tradition. Rather than a simple rejection of Jesuit ideas due to Chinese ethnocentrism, Akin shows why neither the Ming government nor Jesuit priests were willing to make the investments necessary to train Chinese students in Western surveying methods—the government because of different educational priorities and the great expenses of survey parties and the Jesuits because of their priority to propagate Christianity. He also shows that the Jesuit map was not really rejected at all. It was reprinted and positioned right alongside other world maps, simply adding it to the diversity of worldviews already present within the Ming cartographic tradition. Third, Akin presents the East Asian experience as a counterexample to many of the basic assumptions in the general field of cartographic history that are based upon the European experience. For example, while early modern cartographic developments in Europe were driven by state-building enterprises, Chinese map production was largely market-driven. Furthermore, contrary to Benedict Anderson's thesis that a cartographic "footprint" came to Asia only with European imperialism, Akin shows that the proliferation of maps in East Asia during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries produced a "standardization of images of states and their provinces into instantly recognizable forms" (p. 269). He argues that any generalized theory about the relationship between cartography and...

Asijské umění a umělecké řemeslo ve sbírce Západočeského muzea v Plzni

The collection of the West Bohemian Museum in Pilsen includes significant examples of artworks and decorative arts from Asia. The history of this collection dates back to the last quarter of the 19th century, when these items were a part of a collection of the West Bohemian Museum of Decorative Arts in Pilsen. The first director of the museum, architect Josef Škorpil (1856–1931), contributed to the creation of the decorative arts collection and the acquisition of objects from the Far and Middle East. Thanks to its acquisition activities throughout Europe, a significant decorative arts collection was established in Pilsen. Its importance goes beyond the Pilsen region. The concept of creating this collection was in accordance with the emergence of decorative arts museums in Europe. The collection, together with the Asian objects, was presented to the public as a part of an exposition opened in 1913. Today, the Asian collection consists of Chinese and Korean objects, mainly ceramics and porcelain, as well as exceptionally well-preserved textiles from the late Qing Dynasty. The Japanese portable Buddhist altar zushi or a set of Japanese woodblock prints of the ukiyo-e style are among the most unique acquisitions. A relatively modest set of items from the Middle East includes typical examples of decorative arts from Iran, Turkey or Syria. The objects are still a popular subject of research and have also become a part of the new decorative arts permanent exhibition of the museum that was opened in 2017.

Lessons for Women: Woodblock Prints of the Tenpō Reforms Era

Lessons for Women: Woodblock Prints of the Tenpō Reforms Era

Meiji Woodblock Prints by Utagawa Kokunimasa in the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk

Meiji Woodblock Prints by Utagawa Kokunimasa in the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk

О фрагменте монгольского перевода «Заново переведенных „Записей нефритовой шкатулки“ для разных дел» из Национального музея имени Алдан Маадыр Республики Тыва

The article seeks to introduce into scientific discourse a Mongolian-language text dealing with divination and astrological practices, and housed by the National Museum of the Tyva Republic (М-653). Materials. The Classical Mongolian manuscript text is a fragment (introductory part) of the famous Chinese composition titled ‘Jade Box Writings’. It includes 25 yellowish pages of medium size, the pages 7б, 9а, 9б, 10а, 10б missing from the document. The fragment comprises several sections dealing with astrology and divination. Results. The paper compares the Tuva-based text (М-653) to a woodblock print from the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (ID no. F 145). The analysis reveals that manuscript М-653 contains a number of omissions (words and phrases), many lexemes having been essentially marred. The study concludes the Mongolian translation — as is evident from the title ‘A Concise Description of Chapter One of The Jade Box Writings Newly Translated for Various Occasions’ — is a concise translation of the Chinese original, the former missing quite a number of details, and suggests the Tuva-based manuscript is a copy of the Beijing Mongolian-language edition two xylographs of which have been discovered at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts. The text introduced into scientific discourse is actually a historical document providing insight into household activities and worldview concepts of the 19th-century Mongols. The article transliterates the text, translates it into Russian, and supplements a facsimile.

Of nails and planks: the meaning of Edo-period ship construction techniques

This article argues that Edo-period ship construction was often an intentional display of influence and wealth even among workmanlike watercraft. Maritime trade and transport flourished during this time, connecting the urban centers of Osaka and Edo with the farthest reaches of Ezo and Kyushu. The omnipresent nature and variety of styles of boats, from pleasure craft, to fishing vessels, to large trade ships are recorded diligently in hundreds of woodblock prints by numerous different artists. Careful analysis of the construction styles and contexts of these vessels in the prints, in conjunction with studies of contemporary ships’ treatises and extant artifacts in museum collections, suggests that shipwrights strove to create a visually striking watercraft. The prominence of watercraft in the woodblock prints indicates their importance in everyday Edo Japan, and the ships themselves were tangible displays of prestige along their trade routes. Examining the ubiquitous watercraft helps define the subtle ways in which seafarers and cargo owners demonstrated their influence to all who viewed them.

The Painters of the Blaue Reiter and Japan

Abstract Japonisme, like today’s Japanese pop culture, is a transcultural phenomenon. In the ‘classical phase of Japonisme’ individual artists were influenced by Japanese art (especially by ukiyo-e woodblock prints) and transcended thematic and compositional adaption: the confrontation with Japanese art sparked a creative process and led to new developments in art. Japonisme became not only an important medium in the development of modern western art, but also attested a cultural transcendence.

Ойратская коллекция рукописей Национального музея Тувы

В статье дано описание небольшой, но интересной по своему содержанию коллекции ойратских текстов, хранящихся в Национальном музее им. Алдан-Маадыр Республики Тыва. В целом, здесь хранится большое собрание монгольских рукописей и ксилографов, насчитывающее 938 единиц хранения. Из них восемь текстов написаны ойратским «ясным письмом».Наличие на территории Республики Тыва монгольских рукописей вполне объяснимо, поскольку культурно-экономические связи этого региона с Монголией были постоянными на протяжении многих веков. Интенсивность этих связей значительно возросла в период распространения и утверждения буддизма на территории современной Республики Тыва. Наличие текстов на «ясном письме» также не вызывает вопросов, поскольку оно широко бытовало у ойратов, населявших кочевья, граничащие с Тывой. Большая часть рукописей на «ясном письме», хранящаяся в монгольском фонде Института восточных рукописей РАН и Научной библиотеки им. М. Горького СПбГУ была в свое время доставлена российскими исследователями именно с этой территории.Тувинское собрание ойратских рукописей, несмотря на небольшое количество текстов, представляет достаточно ценную коллекцию. В ней представлены как канонический текст буддизма, так и образцы популярной литературы дидактического содержания, литературные сборники, а также тексты необходимые для религиозно-обрядовой практики.

Creation and reference characterization of Edo period Japanese woodblock printing ink colorant samples using multimodal imaging and reflectance spectroscopy

The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division holds a large collection of Edo period (1615–1868) nishiki-e, Japanese multicolored woodblock prints. The sensitivities of some of the traditional colorants to environmental and conservation treatment factors results in numerous preservation concerns. Characterization of colorants in these prints can help guide preservation policies, however, identification of colorants can be difficult and re-creation methodologies for reference samples have been elusive. This paper details reproducible colorant preparation methods and characterizes these samples using accessible non-invasive techniques, multimodal imaging and reflectance spectroscopy. A majority of the colorants can be identified using the two techniques as complementary methods.