This document provides background information on ukiyo-e prints from Edo Japan and compares their depictions of women to works by French artists Manet and Courbet from the 18th-19th centuries. Ukiyo-e prints often featured courtesans and geisha and became popular among common citizens due to affordable printing techniques. While European art stressed realism, Japanese art focused more on symbolic meaning. Both cultures produced artwork depicting nude women that sometimes shocked contemporary audiences.

1. HIS20670 MODERN JAPAN
Jessica Hearne jessica.hearne@ucdconnect.ie 10373893
Module Co-ordinator: Dr. Declan Downey
ESSAY TITLE: A Comparison between the portrayal of women in French and
Japanese Art in the 18th
and 19th
Centuries
The ukiyo-e prints of Edo Japan present a very interesting image of women in that
time. The term “ukiyo-e” can be broken up into two parts; “ukiyo” is defined as
“floating world”, while “e” is simply translated as “pictures”. Thus, the two combined
literally mean “pictures of the floating world”. ‘It is a floating world in two senses:
first, in the traditional Japanese sense of a transitory, illusory place and, second, in ‘…
the world of fleshy pleasure centring in the theatre and the brothel.’1
Before the
developments made during Edo Japan, art had largely been an activity pursued by the
upper classes only. However, with the creation of cheap colour printing and the ever-
growing influence of the pleasure houses and the kabuki theatre, artistic licence was
soon extended to other citizens.2
One of the most popular subject matters of the Edo
period, which dates between 1603 and 1868, was bijin-ga, or “beautiful women”. The
figures in these drawings were normally geishas or courtesans, but also featured
women of the middle and lower classes in normal, everyday scenes.3
These type of
prints saw a surge in popularity in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Mamoru Buncho, active between 1750 and 1790, created a number of paintings of a
famous tea-house waitress by the name of O-Sen, and would thus influence a number
of other artists in following years.4
What is interesting about this choice in subject
matter for the Japanese is that, during the late Edo period, a number of French artists
doing the same thing. Eduard Manet and Gustave Courbet were both active in the
early nineteenth century, and some of their most notable works are rather graphic
images of women. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the French
and Japanese attitudes towards female artistic depiction at this time; where did each
culture draw the line between “erotic” and “distasteful”?
Before launching in to this topic, an important note on the following text must
be observed. The careers of Courbet and Manet are contained within a relatively
1 Seiichiro Takahashi, The Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art: Traditional Woodblock Prints of Japan,
trans. Richard Stanley-Baker, 1976 (New York), p. 9
2 Paul Johnson, Art: A New History, 2003 (London), p.490
3 Information from A Dubliner’s Collection of Asian Art: The Albert Bender Exhibition, National
Museum of Ireland, Decorative Arts and History, Collins Barracks, Benburb Street, Dublin 7.
4 Johnson, Art: A New History, p.490

2. limited time frame, whereas the genre of Japanese ukiyo-e is spread over hundreds of
years. This may leave one wondering why a comparison between these two fields was
chosen, and the reasoning is this. Firstly, both Courbet and Manet are famed for their
depictions of females, which is what the broad topic of bijin-ga also relates to.
Secondly, the work of these two artists proves rather fascinating when compared to
the art of the Japanese. Overall, more emphasis will be placed on Japanese art than
French; the work of French artisans is present merely as a comparison tool. The
Japanese artists that will be discussed are Hishikawa Moronobu and Suzuki
Harunobu, who were both figures of great importance within the Ukiyo-e era. Each
Japanese artist will be discussed individually with comparisons from Manet and
Courbet drawn in; particularly in terms of style and subject matter. Conclusions will
be drawn from all of these insofar as similarities and differences between the two
cultures are concerned.
The style of Courbet and Manet’s work is rather different to those of Japanese
ukiyo-e artists, not just in terms of individuality but in the broader hemisphere of
European and Asian culture. By and large, European art throughout the ages has
generally worked to depict human figures in as realistic a manner as possible, whereas
Asian art, and in particular that of the Japanese, has been more focused on the
meaning behind works rather than unique representation. What is most notable about
Japanese art is the way in which it is categorised, ‘The Ukiyo-e style is primarily a
style of painting…styles of painting in Japan are differentiated more on the grounds of
brushwork than on the type of subject-matter.’5
This is true to an extent for the art of
France and the rest of Europe, but for them it is a combination of technical style and
substance of the piece, rather than one distinct sphere. Manet and Courbet champion
different art movements; Courbet was a distinct realist, whereas Manet, although
sometimes hailed as the ‘grandfather of impressionism’, has a fairly unique style
which cannot be defined as strictly realist or impressionist - his work is more a
merging of the two.
When it comes to subject-matter, here is where we begin to see similarities
between the art of the two cultures. No artist, from either Japan or France, focused
solely on the depiction of women, but in each individual case it is this type of artwork
that they are most recognised for. Courbet painted rather graphic self-portraits and
5 J. Hillier, Japanese Colour Prints, 1991 (London), p.7

3. scenes of rural domesticity, but he is also widely known for his shocking images of
the female form. France was indeed more sexually liberated than most European
societies of the eighteenth and early nineteenth-centuries, this did not stop the public
from reacting in shock to works such as Origin of the World (1865), Sleeping Woman
(1849) and Woman with White Stockings (1861).6
Manet’s work was rather less
graphic, but still did not have an overtly positive impact on nineteenth century French
society. Le Dejuner sur l’Herbe, completed in 1863, is perhaps his most well-
renowned work of art. The painting shows a nude female, presumably a courtesan,
enjoying a picnic with two fully-clothed male companions. Upon it’s unravelling at
The Salon of the same year, the Parisian connoisseurs who first saw it were shocked
by what they presumed to be strong sexual overtones embedded within the
composition.7
Olympia dates to 1865, and provoked similar outcry. The naked woman,
again thought to be a prostitute, looks out of the frame and meets the viewer’s gaze
with a rather bold, brazen expression that the public did not appreciate. It is important
to bear in mind that the European public were more than accustomed to nudity in art;
what shocked them was Manet’s treatment of the subject. Indeed, the clamour at the
1865 Salon (where Olympia was first shown) was so great that the painting had to be
moved to a less-prolific location within the exhibition; she was relocated to ’…a
height where even the worst daubs had never been hung…(so high up that) you
scarcely knew whether you were looking at a parcel of nude flash or a bundle of
laundry.’8
Courtesans were a common feature in bijin-ga, along with tea-house
waitresses and geishas. The general subject matter of Moronobu, Harunobu and
Utamaro does not tend to vary greatly; all are most well-known for their depictions of
beautiful women, and largely vary in terms of the situations in which they are painted,
symbolism and in personal technique.
While Courbet and Manet were strictly painters, ukiyo-e pictures were
sometimes painted but tended more so to be woodblock prints. The reason behind this
is that printing was fairly cheap, and it also allowed images to be reproduced in mass
quantities. This meant that during the Edo period, art could be enjoyed not only by the
upper-class but the middle and lower classes also.9
Another factor which opened up
6 Patrick Bade, Gustave Courbet (Reveries), 1999 (Europe), pp. 4, 12, 44
7 Anne Coffin-Hanson, Manet and the Modern Tradition, 1977 (New Haven and London), pp.92-3
8 Alan Krell, Manet and the Painters of Contemporary Life, 1996 (London), pp.47-8
9 Mitsunobu Sato, Ukiyo-e: Origins and History, from Gabriele Fahr-Becker (ed.), Japanese Prints,
2007 (Munich), p.7

4. the world of art to the poorer citizens of Japan was the growing awareness of western
techniques, such as perspective and the vanishing point. These concepts hailed mostly
from Holland, and the practise of them was therefore called ‘Dutch Learning.’10
However, ‘Dutch Learning’ does not appear to have had a lasting impact on Japanese
art; while it can be seen to an extent in some of the landscape prints of the Edo period,
bijin-ga and other related categories show little European influence. Many artists felt
that embracing practices from outside of Asia would be a rejection of their own
culture; ‘…a Japanese, painting in a Western style, loses his national identity as
completely as his countryman who forsakes the kimono for the lounge suit.’11
Ukiyo-e began as a style of painting in the sixteenth century, and slowly
developed into wood-block printing within the following one-hundred years.
However, it wasn’t until the time of the installation of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the
early seventeenth century that the style truly began to flourish. This new system of
government allowed a new middle-class to emerge; a social class who were very
much focused on the finer and more pleasurable side of life. The new capital of Edo
was founded, and the Tokugawa Shogunate ultimately ushered Japan into an era of
social and economic solidity.12
However, this new society wasn’t approved of by all.
Many considered it to be rather superficial; ‘It was a fast and flashy world; one that
urged you to keep up, but was soon gone…a world of wealth and luxury created and
destroyed in the space of a dream, and a world of attraction and denial, indulgence
and tedium.’13
Ukiyo had originally been a medieval Buddhist term, referring to the
shallow existence one would lead by embracing material culture. However, by the
time of the Edo period, the word had been given a new purpose in embracing the very
same things that Buddhism warned against - carnal pleasures, the entertainment
industry and pride in material wealth.14
It was out of this that bijin-ga developed; the
concept of creating pictures of beautiful women. As Edo (modern-day Tokyo) became
a more populated city, it began to attract the likes of samurai soldiers from the
Japanese countryside, who naturally wanted to explore the more luxurious side of city
life during their time in the capital. Ukiyo-e had first become popular in the time after
the Period of the Warring Provinces, and much of the earlier types of prints, featuring
10 Johnson, Art: A New History, p.491
11 Hillier, Japanese Colour Prints, p.5
12 Hillier, Japanese Colour Prints, pp.6-7
13 Gian Carlo Calza, Visions of the Floating World, from Gian Carlo Calza (ed.), Ukiyo-e, 2005
(London), p.6
14 Calza, Ukiyo-e, p.6

5. strong landscapes with vast castles, was very much ‘…shaped by the notion of a
robust warrior culture with it’s overtones of masculinity.’15
However, as mentioned
above, interests of the male citizens soon moved on to women, and in particular those
of the cafes and pleasure houses.
Hishikawa Moronobu (1618/1625-1694, exact year of birth is subject to
debate) was one of the first ukiyo-e artists to develop his own style of artistic
technique. His family had been embroiderers by trade, but he learned the craft of book
printing when he moved to Edo and ultimately developed a style that was rather
unique. Thought to be educated in the Kano and Tosa schools, he soon moved into the
area of erotic printmaking.16
Isolated bijin-ga images are rare among Moronubu’s
prints, yet they can often be found in his paintings, as there was clearly a market for
them at his time. His prints tended to be somewhat erotic in nature; the form of
artwork had the benefit of being able to be enjoyed privately, which was a positive
quality in a society that was outwardly rather prudish. A sub-category of bijin-ga was
shunga, or erotic art. While bijin-ga was tactfully designed so as though it could
display subtle sexual overtones (and thus be displayed in public without raising too
many eyebrows), shunga was solely for private enjoyment. Courbet and Manet simply
saw the nude as a form of art that should be appreciated by all; to them, there was no
subject too candid, and this lack of sensitivity can be used to explain the revulsion of
the French public when such works were initially revealed. Shunga was created with
two types Edo citizens in mind; the high-ranking women, often left alone while their
husbands were away on various campaigns, and samurai, who had come to the new
capital from rural areas of Japan. Women could enjoy shunga not just in print-form,
but also in sewing patterns, and it was not unusual for females to come together and
compare their own collections. For the samurai, shunga was a means to enjoy the
various females of Edo without having to travel to the pleasure houses of Yoshiwara
and Asakusa. Some did not want to have to journey so far out of the city, for
prostitution was illegal within the urban confines of Edo, and others simply could not
afford the rates.17
However, it is important to bear in mind that the beauties of bijin-ga
and shunga are not of the same kind; bijin-ga prints usually retain some sort of coy
15 Sato, Japanese Prints, p.7
16 Sato, Japanese Prints, pp. 9, 197
17 Timon Screech, Shunga: Erotic Art of the Edo Period, from Gian Carlo Calza (ed.), Ukiyo-e, 2005
(London), pp. 22-26

6. quality about them, whereas shunga can be incredibly explicit. This differentiation
can lead to bijin-ga often being wrongly associated with a rather delicate sort of
woman, but these are not the type of females to be found within this genre; ’…the
new woman oozes sensuality and her body revels in the physical pleasure of sexual
congress, but at the same time displays the callow attractiveness of a young girl that is
a world away from the worldly wise courtesans of the late seventeenth century
masters.’18
One of Moronubu’s erotic prints is titled Young Couple, and dates to
roughly between 1673-1681. Compared to later ukiyo-e prints it is rather simplistic;
the characters appear to be somewhat cartoon-like and little thought has been given to
perspective. The emphasis on this piece is on the details of the clothing rather than the
individuality of the figures; their faces are almost identical, and one can only identify
the male from his sword, which pokes out of his belt in a rather phallic fashion.
Phallic symbolism is a typical feature of Courbet’s work, yet not in such an obvious
manner. It can often be seen as an object, such as a paintbrush, but can only truly be
noticed upon closer inspection. In The Sleeping Spinner of 1853, a large distaff has
fallen from the weaver’s hand and lies, rather suggestively, across the sleeping
woman’s thighs. Although no male is physically present within the painting, Courbet
has placed this object in an attempt to turn the piece into ’…a fantasmatic conflation
of masculine and feminine…’19
Emblematic qualities can also be seen in Manet’s
Dejeuner sur l’Herbe; the bullfinch that hovers over the group has been interpreted by
Andersen as a symbol of wanton behaviour.20
Despite this, it is important to bear in
mind that, for the French, artistic importance lay with realistic depiction rather than in
symbolism, particularly in relation to the portrayal of the human form. Paintings came
after careful studies and preliminary work; one could never simply create a form of art
simply from one’s own imagination. Courbet often had a vast array of models in his
studios, of whom he would do a number of sketches and, later in his career,
photograph, before embarking on an artwork.21
Returning to Moronobu’s Young Couple, another notable quality is the colour
scheme. Early Japanese prints would have been created in monochrome and coloured
in at a later stage, and it has even been suggested that the reds and yellows in this
18 Gian Carlo Calza, vi: The Female Figure in the Floating World, from Gian Carlo Calza (ed.),
Ukiyo-e, 2005 (London), p.332
19 Michael Fried, Courbet’s Realism, 1990 (Chicago and London), pp. 192-3
20 Coffin-Hanson, Manet and the Modern Tradition, p.93
21 Bade, Gustave Courbet (Reveries), pp. 97-100

7. piece were later additions by a student or collector, rather than added by Moronobu
himself.22
The use of students to aid an artist to complete a work had been a fairly
common practice for centuries past, not just in Asia but also in Europe. The artist is
also famed for his book illustrations, which were largely done in monochrome.
Interrupted Lovers is from an erotic book titled Love’s Pleasures, and dates to the year
1683.23
Spread across two pages, the black-and-white illustration shows a couple in an
embrace with a fully-clothed woman (most likely a courtesan) hovering over them,
while a man appears to peep in at the scene from an opening on the left-hand side.
The style is very much linear; there are a small number of instances of solid black, but
these are few and far between. There has been a slightly more concentrated effort on
perspective, but again the scene is somewhat distorted; the focus is more on the
patterns within the picture and the composition of the figures. Once again, there is
little differentiation between facial features. A Bar at the Folies Bergere (1881-2) is
Manet’s last great work. Similarly to Love’s Pleasures, the perspective is warped, yet
in this case it is done deliberately so as to focus the gaze of the viewer on the objects
in the foreground, and the expression of the barmaid gazing out at the viewer.24
Here
is an example of the furthest possible distinction one could make about art between
these two cultures; the Japanese see little to no importance in facial expression, yet
there are numerous examples of European paintings that make the face the centralised
point of a work of art. Is the woman simply in an exulted daydream, her mind
completely elsewhere, or are her thoughts more of the melancholy type? This aspect
of mystery adds to the value of the work. Of a similar, yet perhaps more haunting,
style is Courbet’s The Clairvoyante (1865).25
A dull background simply makes way
for the eyes of the woman being the sole focus of this piece, her gaze being so intense
that the viewer feels rather on-edge looking at it for too long.
Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770) is famed for his rather unique depictions of the
floating world; the females in his work are notably young, and appear largely to be in
a dreamlike state. He was most likely a student of either Shigenaga or Sukenobu, and
is remembered not only for his prints, but also his calendar decorations and vast
collection of illustrated books. One of the most famous of these is Ehon seiro bijin
22 Gabriele Fahr-Becker (ed.), Japanese Prints, 2007 (Munich), p.35
23 Hillier, Japanese Colour Prints, p.32
24 Krell, Manet and the Painters of Contemporary Life, p.49
25 Bade, Gustave Courbet (Reveries), p.113

8. awase, a collection of images of courtesans from a pleasure house in Yoshiwara,
dating to 1770.26
Harunobu was a native of Edo, and he played a vital role in the
development of yakusha-e, the colour print. His work shows influences of sixteenth-
century Chinese art forms, as well as the styles of the Torii masters Kiyotsune and
Kiyomitsu.27
Perhaps one of his most ingenious works is The Assignation: Two Lovers
at a Gate (c.1768), which shows immense skill executed in a very limited space. This
type of long, rectangular imagery is known as a ‘pillar print’, and ‘…presents a kind
of stolen “crack-in-the-door” view of the lovers…’28
The colour scheme is mostly
muted to pale greens and yellows, and the style of drawing is linear, with the
exception of some patterned clothing. The two faces are almost identical; it is only
upon closer inspection that one realises which is the male and which is the female (we
can tell the man from the sandal, typical of the samurai fashion, poking out from
underneath his garb). This piece is rather modest; two young lovers enjoying a stolen
moment together, mindful of who could be watching. There is little evidence of
physical intimacy, yet looking beneath the surface is the epitome of ukiyo-e; just
because something is not obviously displayed does not mean that it doesn’t exist. This
theory is leagues apart from the brazen images Courbet presents of lovers. Sleep or
Idleness and Lust, completed in 1866, shows a nude lesbian couple wrapped in a tight
embrace.29
Commissioned for Khalil Bey, former Ottoman ambassador to Athens and
St Petersburg, the extravagant artist took full advantage of working for a patron who
was not easily shocked by subject-matter.30
He leaves nothing to the imagination; not
the innermost details of their bodies, nor the emotional bond the pair share. Such an
overt display of intimacy would have been solely reserved for shunga in Japan, and,
even then, it would not have been portrayed in such an explicit manner.
Harunobu’s Mitate no Kinko (1765) and The Surprised Nymph (1859-61) by
Manet present woman not only in a sexual manner, but in a mythological one.
However, the approach is very different for each separate work. Mitate-e, or ‘travesty
pictures’, were works that incorporated scenes and symbols from ancient myths and
legends into pictorial representation; the myth seen in Harunobu’s piece is that of
Kinko, the ancient Chinese poet. The tale goes that, during his attempts to capture a
26 Gian Carlo Calza, Artist’s Biographies, from Gian Carlo Calza (ed.), Ukiyo-e, 2005 (London), p.509
27 Fahr-Becker (ed.), Japanese Prints, p.195
28 Hillier, Japanese Colour Prints, p.64
29 Bade, Gustave Courbet (Reveries), p. 66
30 Fried, Courbet’s Realism, pp.205, 207

9. dragon, Kinko came across a giant carp fish. However, it is important to note here that
it is not a direct scene from the tale that the artist is portraying; rather, he is working
details from the legend in to the work to fit around his own ideas. It is thought that the
lady, presumably a courtesan, is reading a letter from her lover, but what is interesting
is that her calm facial expression does not portray the emotions she should have given
her surroundings; ‘…the energetic movements of the fish as it rises out of the water,
it’s flapping fins, the whirling current and the foaming spray, all form a dramatic
contrast to the grace and poise of the girl herself.’31
She is experiencing a fantasy;
transported into a vivid daydream by the romantic words of her lover. This would not
be immediately obvious to a European viewer, but an Asian one, with knowledge of
the myth behind the depiction, would indeed be able to join the dots. Another aspect
of ukiyo-e was to allow the critic to come to the realisation of what was in a piece of
art himself, rather than making it immediately obvious.32
As mentioned previously,
Harunobu was particularly famed for his skills in the realm of the colour print, and
such talent is evident from this picture. The scales of the carp show attempts at
shading (a rather un-common practise within the rather linear world of Japanese art),
and the palette of the young girl is very much distinct from the rest of the scene. Her
kimono in particular is very detailed, and attempts have been made to add to the detail
of it through creases and folds. The swirling waters around the fish all seem to centre
around the scene. The world of the antique was no stranger to Manet, as seen in The
Surprised Nymph; a painting littered with classical inspiration. The scene incorporates
a nude woman in a wooded area, and this early work of Manet’s is certainly more like
the paintings of his predecessors than his others. Inspired by sketches done of older
paintings in the Louvre, such as Boucher’s Diana at the Bath and Nymph and Satyr by
Raimondi, it marks the beginning of one of the most original aspects of the artist’s
work; the correlation between the figure within the work and the spectator.33
Also seen
here, particularly in the soft, curvaceous figure of the nymph and the treatment of the
background, is the influence of the Renaissance. This piece did not shock viewers as
much as some of his later works did, but perhaps it would have done if it had included
a peeping satyr in the bushes as the artist had originally intended.34
31 Fahr-Becker, Japanese Prints, p.63
32 Takahashi, The Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art: Traditional Woodblock Prints of Japan, p.153
33 Krell, Manet and the Painters of Contemporary Life, pp.23-4
34 Coffin-Hanson, Manet and the Modern Tradition, p.92

10. In conclusion, similarities can be drawn between French and Japanese
depictions of women, but overall the two are largely rather different. The two nations
had the theme of the courtesans in common, but they are poles apart when it comes to
the matters of technique and style. Another vast difference was that, while the French
seemed to have no qualms about subject matter that would be displayed to the public,
the Japanese remained more candid, creating the different realms of bijin-ga and
shunga for separate audiences. Later on in the nineteenth century many European
artists would become influenced by Japanese prints, Manet himself being included in
this, but this was largely to do with landscape rather than the portrayal of the human
figure. Each culture worked hard to distinguish itself in terms of artwork, and both
French and Japanese works from this time are still appreciated for their unique
qualities to this day.
FINAL WORD COUNT (Excluding title, footnotes and bibliography): 3,881
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Individual research from A Dubliner’s Collection of Asian Art: The Albert Bender
Exhibition, National Museum of Ireland, Museum of Decorative Arts and History,
Collins Barracks, Benburb Street, Dublin 7.
Patrick Bade, Gustave Courbet (Reveries), Europe, Parkstone Press Ltd., 1999.
Gian Carlo Calza, Visions of the Floating World, from Gian Carlo Calza (ed.), Ukiyo-
e, London, Phaidon Press, 2005.
Anne Coffin Hanson, Manet and the Modern Tradition, New Haven and London, Yale
University Press, 1977.
Michael Fried, Courbet’s Realism, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago
Press, 1990.
J. Hillier, Japanese Colour Prints, London, Phaidon Press, 1991.
Paul Johnson, Art: A New History, London, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2003.
Alan Krell, Manet and the Painters of Contemporary Life, London, Thames and
Hudson, 1996.

11. Mitsunobu Sato, Ukiyo-e: Origins and History, from Gabriele Fahr-Becker (ed.),
Japanese Prints, Munich, Taschen, 2007.
Timon Screech, Shunga: Erotic Art of the Edo Period, from Gian Carlo Calza (ed.),
Ukiyo-e, London, Phaidon Press, 2005.
Seiichiro Takahashi, The Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art: Traditional Woodblock
Prints of Japan, trans. Richard Stanley-Baker, New York, Weatherhill/Heibonsha,
1976.