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I feel that interactivity in gaming is pretty much the core and purpose of the game. In my opinion, it is very important for a game to make the players bond and have fun. If a game  doesn’t initiate interactions from the players, then it is not worth playing it.

Bingo Grows In Popularity Despite The Smoking Ban And The Recession

Nowadays, people are getting more into the online world. I think this is kinda cool because now we can interact with anyone from all over the world at the same time.

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I feel like the Japonisme and Japonaiserie theme was a difficult one. At first, my team mates and I thought that they are both roughly the same. However, we were told that they were not. So, we had to do quite a lot of research to find out the differences. Even after reading articles and e-books on these two topics, I still couldn’t grasp the basic concept and differences between Japonisme and Japonaiserie paintings.

Thus, I decided to do more image searches. The differences between Japonisme and Japonaiserie paintings became more clear. After looking at the different paintings, their differences definitely became more jarring.

My team also had a problem with dividing our work since there are 3 of us. Therefore, we decided to bring in another piece of art which is the Japanese ukiyo-e. I think this was a good idea since ukiyo-e  was the main reason why Japonisme and Japonaiserie came out.

I didn’t really like the tight schedule that my team mates and I had. For me, I rarely procrastinate but since this was a team project, I had to wait for my other team mates suggestions or agreement before I could proceed with whatever I had planned. This was definitely the most challenging part for me! I am always so used to doing individual work and having to do a project that needs us to convene together to build the exhibition model was quite tough. Thankfully, all went rather well  and we managed to finish it just in time. I thought it was pretty impressive of my team of 3 to finish it just like all the other teams!

Building the mini exhibition was quite fun. I also had fun buying the materials as there are new shops that I discovered thanks to Adeline! Not only has this project taught me about teamwork and Japonisme and Japonaiserie, but also on where to get my resources!

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Three Beauties of the Present Day
Color woodcut, ink and color on paper with white mica ground
c. 1793, Japan, Edo period
Kitagawa Utamaro
37 x 25 cm
Accession no.: 21.6382
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA

The artist, Kitagawa Utamaro, was one of the finest printmakers in the eighteenth century. This genre of print is called “bijin-ga” which portrays beautiful women or courtesans. In this particular print, the women portrayed in this print were celebrities at the time. They were a geisha named Tomimoto Toyohina, and two teahouse waitresses named Naniwa Kita and Takashima Hisa. This piece uses invisible diagonal lines to form a triangular composition of the three women.

The women’s facial features in this print are idealized; however, there is still some subtle individuality to each woman. For example, Kita has fuller cheeks, Hisa’s nose bridge is lower than Kita’s and Toyohina’s features are somewhat a mixture of the two.

This print is a multi-colored ukiyo-e, therefore, it is made from several woodblocks of the different colors present. The woodblocks were then pressed onto Japanese Handmade paper called “Washi” which is made using fibers of the Gampi tree. The white mica ground adds a beautiful glittering finish to the print.

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Initially, woodblock prints in Japan, also known as ukiyo-e (“pictures of the floating world”), were used in the eighth century to disseminate texts such as Buddhist scriptures. Eventually, during the Edo period, ukiyo-e depicted beautiful women and fantastic kabuki actors at the time, and later on, flora and fauna also became one of the more popular themes.

These prints were made by various artists and craftsmen. The usual pipeline of making a print is that the ukiyo-e artists sketches the design using ink, the carver then pastes the design on a block and carves the design onto the block, and lastly, the printer applies the colors accordingly and presses the blocks onto Japanese paper.

Many ukiyo-e prints by artists like Utamaro were actually posters showing off the kabuki actors, or portraiture of gorgeous geishas or teahouse girls. Other artists like Hokusai, uses ukiyo-e to depict flora and fauna, and landscapes.

 

Reference:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ukiy/hd_ukiy.htm

http://www.ukiyo-e.se/

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Three Beauties of the Present Day (c. 1972-93) by Kitagawa Utamaro

Three Beauties of the Present Day is a Japanese multi-colored woodblock print from a famous ukiyo-e artist named Kitagawa Utamaro. The print is made using the nishike-e method, which is multi-colored and full-colored print that acquires multiples woodblocks for each color used.

It features three popular beautiful women at the time and they are geisha Tomimoto Toyohina, and teahouse waitresses Naniwa Kita and Takashima Hisa. The piece has an interesting triangular composition for the women. The composition is interesting because it is mostly used as a symbol of unity in Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Therefore, Utamaro cleverly positioned these women to show the unity of these three famous celebrities at the time. Utamaro also creates emphasis on the figures as he excluded any background settings, so that the viewer will be able to focus more on the figure while viewing this print.

Instead of the usual ukiyo-e genre that portrays courtesans, this piece portrays young women who adorned the Edo period for their exquisiteness. All three figures have their hair up in a Shimada up-do where the hair is gathered and knotted together at the top of the head with a small portion of the bun is sectioned off to point outwards.

Each of them is easily identified by her family crest seen on their kimono dresses. Tomimoto Toyohina, the one in the center, is dressed differently than the other two. She is seen to be wearing a more geisha style of dress. Her kimono also has her family crest which is a primrose crest on her sleeve. The woman on the right is Naniwaya Kita, who was a popular daughter of the owner of a teahouse in Asakusa, which is famous for the Sensō-ji temple. She is wearing a black kimono and is holding a fan with her family emblem embroidered on it that is of a paulownia shape. On the left, Takashima Hisa, is the daughter of the owner of a roadside teahouse called Senbeiya. The tea towel that she has over her shoulder partially covers her family crest which is the three-leaved daimyo oak crest on her kimono.

Utamaro also idealizes the three women’s facial features; however, there are very subtle differences that differentiate them. Kita has plump cheeks and her eyes are of a narrower almond shaped compared to the other two women. Her nose bridge is also higher and more curved. Hisa’s nose is lower and longer than Kita’s and her facial expression and posture is also different. She seems to have a more confident look. Toyohina has a more mature look. The stance gives her this wise and intellectual look.

The print was published by Tsutaya Jūzaburō and his seal can be seen on the left, above Hisa’s head. Utamaro’s signature is printed on the bottom left as well. There is nice glittering effect on the print which was dusted with muscovite, which is a type of mineral.

After the success of this print, Utamaro designed some other portraiture with the same composition featuring the same three women.

 

Bibliography:

http://exhibitions.nypl.org/treasures/items/show/172

 

Harris, Frederick (2011). Ukiyo-e: The Art of Japanese Print, p.60

Kobayashi, Tadashi (1997). Ukiyo-e: An Introduction to Japanese Woodblock Prints, pp.80-83