Posted by Dan on January 11, 1999 at 19:35:14:
In Reply to: Re: Senchô image posted by Hans Olof Johansson on January 11, 1999 at 10:44:49:
To Hans Olof:
She's all yours! Coming soon...
To John:
You make a persuassive argument, but the only thing that bothers me is the timing. The fact that Toyokuni III was making outright actor prints in a style generally similar to that he used before the reforms suggests to me he was not under great pressure to hide his actors or innovate to avoid the reforms.
The examples you raise from Osaka are extremely interesting though. No doubt Osaka was hit much harder by the reforms, the greater part of Osaka prints being of the theater. There were fewer escape routes, fewer traditional forms to fall back on and hide behind. But again, I think it's a different case from Edo, where most of the innovating went on in the early years of the reforms.
I think we're fully agreed that the Tempo reforms did stimulate new forms of creativity. I'm not underestimating that. I just question the timing of the pressure you think stimulated the 1852 sets. I wouldn't argue with you that the reforms brought about new possibilities, and perhaps made the conceit of the actors as poets etc. more readily acceptable. But mitate existed well before the reforms, as did (as you wisely mention) the conceit of a figure in closeup against a background landscape.