Tamagano in Takano by Suzuki Harinobu

Tamagano in Takano by Suzuki Harinobu

In the 1830s and 1840s, lifeless compilative works appeared increasingly, in which purely formal expressiveness, a predilection for external effects, superseded the thin transmission of the mood of the model, which was almost the main advantage of the engraving of the second half of the 18th century. Obviously, the features of decay emerged later, in the so-called Bakumatsu era, which preceded the Meiji revolution of 1868.

Therefore, the extension of the concept of “decay” to the entire engraving of the first half – the middle of the XIX century is unlikely to be qualified. And not only because in the works of such artists as Utagawa Kunisada, Uta-gawa Kuniesi and others, traditional genres are experiencing their last flowering, but primarily because at this time a new development for Ukiyo-e genre – fukike.

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