Bloody Prints

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi - Blood on the Bodies

Bloody prints - or a more contemporary term Muzan-e 無残絵, in which muzan means atrocity in Japanese, is an niche design style in traditional Japanese ukiyo-e (‘pictures of the floating world’) exclusively flourished by Japanese-based artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 月岡 芳年 (1839 - 1892).  The very first release of this genre was on 1866, the series was named '28 Famous Murders with Verse' (1866 - 1867).  

The exhibition provides a brief overview of significant bloody prints created by Yoshitoshi from late Edo (1604 - 1867) to early Meiji (1868 - 1912), implying social dissatisfaction and commentary under the rule of Tokugawa Shogunate (1600 - 1868).  Similar to Ghosts prints, all works on the bloody prints were made to shock, potentially reminding the vulnerability of lifes.  {A}ll that is ordinary, commonplace, belonging to everyday life, and recognized by all suddenly becomes meaningless, dubious, and hostile.  Our own world becomes an alien world.  (Bakhtin, 1968)  Another explanation here is said by William Shakespeare, “the hell is empty, and they are here”, replacing the cruel part of humanity with “demons”.  Bloody prints by Yoshitoshi are not only distinguishable by their singular beauty as ukiyo-e, but also the acute captions of the motions as time was frozen, the eccentric blood effects edited pushes the macabre scenes to extreme but project unique tastes of beauty, both aesthetically and sexually.  

In the first section, we will present the fact of more appearing blood elements or scenes on the kabuki 歌舞伎 play (a traditional Japanese dance-drama form) stages with the series ‘28 Famous Murders with Verse'.  The rationale behind is not limited by the intruding western culture.  The social unrest around the 1860s went along with war and rebellions, masculinities were weighted more than femininities.  Men “derived pleasure from acts of cruelty towards women” (Keyes, 1980), exemplified by sadisms of the female body or Shibari 縛り (Japanese rope bondage).  In the second, prints from the series 'Selection of 100 Warriors' will be exhibited, featuring blood on male bodies or stemmed from war.  We will explain how Yoshitoshi balances between depiction of the warriors and self-expressions and self-isolations in a relatively impolitical way.  We will conclude the exhibition with works created by the artist later in his life, illustrating the influences by the social commentary from a longer historical timeframe, illuminating how “no blood” could release psychological thrills.