Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Alice Sirasari and.
Speaker 2: I'm Andrew Davis. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.
Speaker 2: It is easier for people to understand no matter where
Speaker 2: in the world they live.
Speaker 1: A great wave rises in the ocean. Three small wooden
Speaker 1: boats float below it. There are people in these boats,
Speaker 1: but we cannot see many of them. The ocean waves
Speaker 1: are so high these block the sailors from being seen.
Speaker 1: The sailors we can see hold on for their lives.
Speaker 1: Far past the sailors, a mountain rises. There is snow
Speaker 1: at its top. The mountain is the same color as
Speaker 1: the waves. It even looks as if it is one
Speaker 1: of them, but it is solid, unmoving.
Speaker 2: This is a description of a famous painting. It is
Speaker 2: called the Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai. Great
Speaker 2: Wave is an excellent example of a Japanese art style
Speaker 2: called ukiyoa. This name translates to pictures of the floating world.
Speaker 2: These pictures are a style of printed art. Today's Spotlight
Speaker 2: is on the floating world of Japanese printmaking.
Speaker 1: Ukiyoa is a unique style of art from Japan. Japanese
Speaker 1: artists created its images through a method called woodblock printing.
Speaker 1: To create a woodblock print, an artist would first paint
Speaker 1: an image. Another person would cut the image into a
Speaker 1: piece of wood. Then they would cover the image in paint.
Speaker 1: They would place paper on top of the wood, then
Speaker 1: they would press down. This would copy the image from
Speaker 1: the wood to the paper. It was a low cost
Speaker 1: way to create many versions of a single image.
Speaker 2: Japan was not the only country to use woodblock printing.
Speaker 2: Many other cultures also used this kind of printing, but
Speaker 2: the conditions that created ukiyoa were special. What historians today
Speaker 2: called ukiyoa began during Japan's Edo Period. This was a
Speaker 2: period of time between sixteen oh three and eighteen sixty eight.
Speaker 2: During this period, strong military leaders called shoguns ruled Japan.
Speaker 2: These rulers stopped foreigners from entering the country. People from
Speaker 2: other countries could not trade with Japan and Japanese these
Speaker 2: people could not leave their country. The Edo period was
Speaker 2: a time with few wars, and many people made their
Speaker 2: way to the Japanese capital. The name of the capital
Speaker 2: was Edo.
Speaker 1: In its time, Edo became the most populated city in
Speaker 1: the world. By seventeen hundred, one million people lived in Edo.
Speaker 1: Traders or merchants who lived there became wealthy. Some became
Speaker 1: so wealthy that they did not need to work. They
Speaker 1: spent their time in the Edo entertainment district. These were
Speaker 1: areas filled with theaters, places to eat, and places to
Speaker 1: buy sex. People from Edo called these areas ukiyo. It
Speaker 1: meant the floating world. Asiriyoi was a Japanese writer who
Speaker 1: lived during the Edo period, He wrote about these places
Speaker 1: in his book Tales from the Floating World.
Speaker 3: Living only for the present, enjoying the moon, the snow,
Speaker 3: the flowering trees and the leaves, singing songs, drinking alcohol,
Speaker 3: enjoying yourself, just floating and concerned by thoughts of poverty,
Speaker 3: care free, like a vegetable carried along with the river current.
Speaker 3: That is what we call ukiyo.
Speaker 2: These wealthy traders wanted art to make their homes beautiful,
Speaker 2: but they did not want traditional Japanese art. They wanted
Speaker 2: art that looked like their lives. They wanted art that
Speaker 2: reminded them of the Ukiyo. Artists began to meet this demand.
Speaker 2: At first, these artists painted views of the Ukiyo, but
Speaker 2: they soon found printing much easier. They could make hundreds
Speaker 2: of copies of the same picture, and they could sell
Speaker 2: these prints at a price most traders could pay.
Speaker 1: Hishikawa Moronobu was one of the first artists of Ukiyoa.
Speaker 1: Moronobu's style was special and the subjects of his prints
Speaker 1: were different. Before artists often painted the lives of nobles
Speaker 1: and warriors, but Moronobu's work showed real life in the
Speaker 1: entertainment districts. He painted beautiful women playing instruments. His woodcuts
Speaker 1: showed actors from kabuki theater performances. These prints showed sumo wrestlers,
Speaker 1: sex workers, and tea house mistresses. But Moronobu did not
Speaker 1: make his princes realistic. The prince did not look like
Speaker 1: a photograph. These showed a special style.
Speaker 2: Most other Ukyoe artists followed Moronobu's example. They printed views
Speaker 2: from life and from history, but they also improved on
Speaker 2: his method. One of the most important improvements was the
Speaker 2: use of line. Line is one of the basic elements
Speaker 2: of art. It is the part that gives a piece
Speaker 2: of art its shape. The line in Maronubu's art often
Speaker 2: curved or flowed. Later artists expanded this element. They filled
Speaker 2: their prints with graceful curving lines.
Speaker 1: Soon Ukiyowa began to change. More people became interested in
Speaker 1: this form of art, and new masters of the art
Speaker 1: form appeared. Katsushika hoku Sai was one of these masters.
Speaker 1: Hoku Sai's work was similar to Moronobu's in some ways,
Speaker 1: but printers of his period used more colors. These prints
Speaker 1: were also more detailed. Hokusai himself studied art from Europe
Speaker 1: and the Americas. He used many of their methods in
Speaker 1: his work. He played with light and darkness. These methods
Speaker 1: made his art seem more real.
Speaker 2: Hokusai also showed different subjects and earlier printers. His Great
Speaker 2: Wave is an excellent example. Before Houkusai u ki yoe,
Speaker 2: artists mostly created work about the ukio, but Hokusai's work
Speaker 2: showed the beauty of nature. He painted work showing mountains, animals,
Speaker 2: and the sea. Hokusai's work was so popular that other
Speaker 2: painters followed his example.
Speaker 1: Ukiyowa changed art both in and out of Japan. It
Speaker 1: influenced many artists in the Western world. Artists such as
Speaker 1: Vincent van Go and Claude Monet took inspiration from what
Speaker 1: they saw French artist en Ri de delous La Trek's
Speaker 1: posters show this Japanese style. These artists contributed to Art Nouveau,
Speaker 1: an artistic movement it started in France. Its painters took
Speaker 1: Ukiyoa's bent lines, but they used these lines in a
Speaker 1: new way.
Speaker 2: By eighteen ninety, uki Yoi's popularity had decreased in Japan.
Speaker 2: The country permitted trade with other countries in eighteen sixty eight.
Speaker 2: This brought new technology and new ideas. These ideas grew popular.
Speaker 2: Many believed that uki yoi was old fashioned. People still
Speaker 2: produced uki yoi, but it was no longer a part
Speaker 2: of the larger culture.
Speaker 1: But Ukiyoa's influence is still strong, its style changed. Western
Speaker 1: art prints like the Great Wave off Kanagawa still inspire artists,
Speaker 1: and in some places people still learn the traditional way.
Speaker 1: Nakayama Maiguri is the director of the Adachi Institute for
Speaker 1: woodblock Prints. This organization still uses ukioa methods, it also
Speaker 1: creates new woodblock art. Nakayama spoke to nipon dot com
Speaker 1: about the future of ukiyoa.
Speaker 4: We are trying to show people how ukiyoe can make
Speaker 4: our lives better. We produce woodcut prints from works by
Speaker 4: present artists. This is one important way of making Ukiyoe
Speaker 4: seem more contemporary in the twenty first century.
Speaker 2: What is your favorite style of art? How would you
Speaker 2: describe it? You can leave a comment at www dot
Speaker 2: Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram,
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Speaker 2: Spotlight English app.
Speaker 1: The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer
Speaker 1: was Mitchyosaki. The voices you heard were from the United
Speaker 1: Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for
Speaker 1: this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called
Speaker 1: Images of the Floating World.
Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 2: Spotlight program. Goodbye,