Boston, Ukiyo-e and UT

It’s not difficult to imagine the challenges Fenollosa must have faced at the time, researching Japanese art as a foreigner. What made this possible was his passion and his close relationships with Okakura and other Japanese contacts. Fenollosa studied painting under Kano Eitoku Tatsunobu and Noh theater with Umewaka Minoru I, cultivating an educated eye for Japanese art. He sold most of his collection to physician Charles G. Weld, and it eventually wound up being donated to the MFA. In 1890, Fenollosa returned to the US to accept a role as curator of the newly established Japanese department, now the Department of Asian Art.

Bigelow, who graduated from Harvard with a degree in medicine, was so impressed by a lecture Morse gave on Japan that he went there himself in 1882. He joined Fenollosa, Okakura, and several Japanese associates on an artifact hunt led by Morse, purchasing swords and lacquerware for his own collection. Thereafter, he was smitten with Japan and spent all of his time there until 1889, apart from brief trips home. Bigelow loved Japan with all his heart, especially the food and fashion. He even converted to Buddhism. A major supporter of Japanese art, he drew upon a family fortune gained through trading to fund the work of painters like Kano Hogai and Hashimoto Gaho and even underwrote the restoration of artifacts at Horyuji Temple in Nara.

Curator Sarah Thompson offers insight into a Hokusai woodblock.

“Around 200 prints of Hokusai’s Under the Wave off Kanagawa exist around the world, seven of which are here. A Two of these were donated about a hundred years ago by the Spaulding brothers, wealthy collectors who gave us over six thousand ukiyo-e prints. To ensure the lifespan of their amazing collection, which includes over two thousand prints from Utagawa Hiroshige I, the brothers made the stipulation that none of the works be left out on display.”

Since ukiyo-e were printed on washi paper using many plant-derived organic colourants, light and humidity can cause colours to fade or change. The paper is also susceptible to discolouration, stains and tears. The museum continuously searches for prints of great quality while preserving and conserving the prints in the collection.

“Here’s something you won’t find anywhere else,” said Thompson, leading us into a storage room. Inside, we caught a special glimpse of the woodblocks used for printing Sumidagawa Ryogan Ichiran, a poetry book by Hokusai. Since ukiyo-e were essentially a media for conveying passing trends, they were treated as ephemera, while most woodblocks were carved over repeatedly or otherwise destroyed in the Great Kanto earthquake or the firebombings of World War II. Few remain in Japan. This exceedingly rare artifact was among the many items Bigelow donated to the museum. These woodblocks were first identified in a museum storage facility in the 1980s, leading to a special “homecoming” exhibition in Japan, where Japanese printers used them to produce a brand-new edition of the book!

“Our ukiyo-e collection speaks to the deep relationship of the museum and Japan,” says Debra LaKind, Senior Director of Intellectual Property and Business Development.

“Ukiyo-e are iconic and continue to be widely popular to this day. In the spring, we’ll be staging an exhibition titledHokusai: Inspiration and Influence, focusing on Hokusai’s imprint on global art. Our long partnership with UNIQLO is one of the museum’s most important links to Japanese culture. The UT shirts printed with graphics from the works of Hokusai, Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi have become must-have items at our gift shop.”

Over 140 years have passed since the heyday of Morse, Fenollosa, Bigelow and Okakura. Their passionate devotion to Japanese art transcended borders. That sentiment lives on today in Boston, where these works are in good hands.

The MFA has expert conservators skilled in preserving and conserving ukiyo-e prints. While fading cannot be reversed, tears and holes can be repaired. Using a scalpel, tiny shapes are meticulously cut from washi paper and then coloured, to discreetly fill holes made by insects.

Especially noteworthy among the trove of artworks Bigelow acquired in Japan were the ukiyo-e prints, most of which were later donated to the MFA. In contrast to Fenollosa, who cared little for ukiyo-e, Bigelow gathered them systematically, eventually donating over thirty thousand woodblock prints and 700 paintings to the MFA. After returning to the US, he served for more than thirty years as a museum trustee.

These donations caused the size of its Japanese collection to blossom overnight, but Fenollosa’s resignation in 1896 left the collection without a knowledgeable curator. After an interim, Bigelow stepped in and asked the museum to hire Okakura. In this new role, Okakura traveled back and forth between Japan and Boston, laboring to verify the authenticity and age of works.

“Including the works gifted to the museum by Bigelow, today we have about fifty thousand ukiyo-e prints in the collection. What sets us apart is that a large number of the historically important works we hold are in superb condition,” explains Sarah E. Thompson, a curator of Japanese art at the MFA’s Department of Asian Art.

For several of these woodcuts, the museum has multiple prints. Hundreds or even thousands of these nishiki-e (multi-colour woodblock prints) were produced at a time, each with subtle variations in colour. Printing slowly wears out the woodblocks, creating tiny marks and lines, until the block is exhausted. The “first pressing,” roughly the first 200 prints, have the best quality and are likely closest to the vision of the artist. Some later prints show inconsistencies created when the blocks wore down. To demonstrate this phenomenon, Thompson showed us two not-so-identical prints of “Red Fuji” (from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji), a popular work by Hokusai that enjoyed a large number of printings. The collection is organized with a high degree of granularity that includes information like these tiny differences. Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji ), a popular work by Hokusai that enjoyed a large number of printings. The collection is organized with a high degree of granularity that includes information like these tiny differences.

Framing workshop. The washi used for ukiyo-e is so delicate that it must be framed with the utmost care.

The museum gift shop has various items inspired by ukiyo-e, including UT shirts, speaking to the art form’s popularity.