The Features of Japanese Ukiyo-Ewoodcut of XVII-XIX Centuries

Japanese theatrical prints are the result of a unique cooperation of ukiyo-e woodcut and Kabuki Theater. Despite a large number of studies of this kind of art, mostly dedicated to individual artists, there are very few works devoted to the complex development of theatrical woodcut. The aim of this study is try to identify the artistic features of Japanese theatrical ukiyo-e prints of the 17-19th centuries. For this purpose, the socio-political aspect of the formation of Japanese urban culture was, the forms of interrelation between the kabuki theater and ukiyo-e woodcut were revealed and the contribution of the schools of Torii, Katsukawa and Utagawa to the development of the theater prints of Japan in the Tokugawa period was studied. The works of domestic and foreign historians and art historians specializing in Japan in the Tokugawa period are also analyzed. The work is based on the methodological principle, consisting in an integrated approach to the study of the history of the formation and development in the 17-19th centuries of theatrical ukiyo-e prints. Its development is analyzed against the background of the specific cultural situation in Japan of the Tokugawa period. The contribution of the masters of selected schools to the formation and development of the ukiyo-e theater prints was revealed. The masters of the Torii school, who stood at the origins of classical Japanese ukiyo-e prints and closely connected with the kabuki theater, formed the canonical historical-heroic image of the aragoto. Following them, the artists of the Katsukawa dynasty began to strive for the transfer of portrait similarities and internal subtleties of the theatrical art. Representatives of the last large school of classic Japanese prints Utagawa from the specificity of the works of Katsukawa returned to the themes of the early Torii, however Utagawa artists no longer understand and therefore could not and depict the unique meaning of the images of early theatrical prints.