The floating world of Japan lands in Rome. Ukiyoe art on display

The enjoyment of the ephemeral in Japanese style arrives in Rome with an exhibition that through 150 works recounts the great social, economic and artistic changes that occurred between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Until June 23rd, 30 artists from the Edo era will parade at Palazzo Braschi, a long period of peace which saw the emergence of the Ukiyoe genre in Japan, literally translatable as ‘images of the floating world’.

This is the name of the exhibition divided into seven sections which delve into the production and diffusion of images, books, prints, paintings and various art objects created by some of the most important artists of the time, including Kitagawa Utamaro, Katsushika Hokusai, Keisai Eisen and the great Utagawa school.

The Ukiyoe – the floating world indicates the earthly world in which everything is evanescent and transitory. Until 1600 this term was used with a negative sense, indicating according to Buddhism everything from which one had to escape in order to find enlightenment. With the new emerging and urban class, however, the awareness of the daily enjoyment given by the arts, culture and and fashion. “It is therefore the enjoyment of the fleeting moment, of the ephemeral until that moment rejected,” he explained Rossella Menegazzo, curator of the exhibition“I am happy that the Museum of Rome hosts such a prestigious and representative selection of a pictorial genre that has spanned the centuries, representing a turning point in the history of Japanese art and influencing not only Japanese culture, but that of the entire world. world. Ukiyoe has in fact influenced numerous Western artists, from Van Gogh to Monet, up to today’s manga, becoming a cultural bridge between East and West and Rome, which in its long history has always been open to other cultures, represents the ideal place for welcome these extraordinary works”, said the Councilor for Culture of Rome Capital Miguel Gotor.

An example of the reflection of Ukiyoe on Western culture is the collecting of two Italian artists, the sculptor Vincenzo Ragusa and the engraver Edoardo Chiossone who formed two of the most important groups of oriental art in Italy, today preserved at the Museum of Oriental Art of Genoa and the Museum of Civilizations of Rome, from which several works present in Palazzo Braschi come.

The exhibition itinerary – the first section of the exhibition dedicated to female beauty, the central subject of Ukiyoe, shows female figures engaged in artistic activities such as painting, calligraphy, strategy board games, poetry and music. Dance is the heart of the second section together with the theatre, while the following section focuses on the pleasure districts that had developed just outside the city and where only the rules of seduction and fashion were valid.

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In the rooms dedicated to this theme, a precious indigo-coloured padded overkimono embroidered with gold and colored threads, coming from the collection of the count of bards, is also on display, as well as some very decorative fans on loan from the museum of civilisations. Entertainment and pastimes are the subjects of another section, while the last two are dedicated to representations of cities, natural views and architectural ones. It is here that the famous great wave of Kanawaka is found, part of Hokusai’s 36 views of Mount Fuji.