Page 384 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

Moronobu's work anticipated and contributed to the cultural frisson of the Genroku era
(referring broadly to the final decades of the seventeenth and early decades of the eighteenth centuries),
the brilliance of which is amply documented by surviving prints and paintings of the day, and by the
frolicsome novels of Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693) and puppet plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon, whose
plots formed the basis of many kabuki plays. It was a time when artists of great imagination and talent
reflected on the forces that ruled people's emotional lives and captured them in art for posterity. Genroku
was an era of conspicuous opulence, of luxurious tastes in food, fashion, and art, when the wealthy
merchant class exercised a great say over cultural production.
A scene from the first scroll of Moronobu's Scenes of Daily Life in Edo shows a panorama of men
and women enjoying an outing on the Sumida River (cat. 240). The name of the roofed pleasure boat is 383
Kawatake-maru, written with characters that literally mean "Ship of the River Warrior," but which pun
on the homonym kawatake, recalling the common reference of the day to a prostitute who is cast adrift
in the world like "a piece of bamboo on the river." Inside the boat groups of people, separated by gender,

enjoy music or watch a go match while indulging in sake and snacks; in the smaller boat alongside the
Kawatake-maru tasty dishes are being prepared (see detail pp. 384-385). Nearby a "boar's tusk" boat
ferries passengers to and from Yoshiwara. 12
Scenes such as this conjure the new sense of the floating world as described by popular writers
of the day. Asai Ryói (1612? -1691), for example, wrote in his novel Tales of the Floating World (Ukiyo mono-
gatari), "Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow,
the cherry blossoms, and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just
floating, floating; caring not a whit for the pauperism staring us in the face, refusing to be disheartened,
13
like a gourd floating along with the river current; this is what we call the floating world" Ryôi's com-
ments reveal how the concept of ukiyo had entirely shed its original pessimistic Buddhist connotations.
Moronobu's view of the world was one in which people behaved according to strictly denned
social relationships, or in response to deep human feeling, or as driven by uncontrollable sexual desire.
In his prints and paintings he effectively conveys this dynamic energy through small group scenes
in which figures relate to each other according to infinitely complex laws of physical attraction, aloof
voyeurism, or complete lack of passion. Moronobu's genius was in capturing the dynamism of human
interaction, more often than not between young men and women, though in the spirit of an age when
homosociality flourished, he also recorded the chemistry between older men and teenage boys, as
detailed for instance in the left screen of the kabuki paintings from the Tokyo National Museum
(cat. 238) or in the last scene of the first scroll of Scenes of Daily life in Edo. 14

I D E A L I Z E D In western art there is a distinct tradition of portraiture comprising full-length paintings of eminent
B E A U T Y women, usually specific individuals. In contrast, the Japanese tradition of bijinga, "pictures of beautiful
women," focused on unidentified young women (or occasionally nameable courtesans) presented with
a strong tinge of eroticism. The closest parallel is perhaps European paintings of female nudes, a mode
of representation that did not emerge in Japan until modern times. Rather, paintings of beautiful women
during early modern times focused entirely on facial features, elegant coiffures, and beautiful garments.
There is no better spokesperson of the aesthetic values of the age than Ihara Saikaku, a writer
of popular fiction during the Genroku era. In an episode of his Life of an Amorous Woman (Kóshoku ichidai