Utamaro and the spectacle of beauty
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Utamaro and the spectacle of beauty
University of Hawai'i Press, c2007
- : hardcover
Available at 11 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Bibliography: p. [249]-281
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Utamaro reinterprets the famous Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) in the context of his times. Utamaro became one of the most influential artists working in the genre of ukiyo-e, "the pictures of the floating world," in late eighteenth-century Japan, and was widely appreciated for his prints of beautiful women. By drawing on a wide range of period sources, making a close study of selected print sets, and employing newer approaches in literature, art history, area, and gender studies, Davis reconstructs the place of the ukiyo-e artist within the commercial print market and demonstrates how Utamaro's images participated in a larger spectacle of gender and identity in the city of Edo (present-day Tokyo). Utamaro's authorial persona was defined through the print medium as an "artist" and an expert on women, marketing connoisseurial values for both art and the female body within Edo's entertainment culture. The notorious censorship of Utamaro and his colleagues in 1804 evidences how much this appropriation of cultural authorship also posed a challenge to the political establishment.
The book thus offers a new approach to issues of the status of the artist and the construction of gender, identity, sexuality, and celebrity in the Edo period. A significant contribution to the field, this book will be appreciated by readers interested in Japanese arts and cultures, gender and women's studies, and in the broader issues of art history and cultural studies.
by "Nielsen BookData"