Kuchi-e

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A kuchi-e lithograph by . Note the creases where the print was folded into a magazine.

Kuchi-e (口絵) are frontispieces of books, especially woodblock printed frontispieces for Japanese romance novels and literary magazines published from the 1890s to the 1910s.[1]

They usually portrayed women and were bounded into the book's spine or inserted into literary magazines to give readers a sense of what type of stories were to unfold. Most kuchi-e were woodblock prints in romance novels intended for a female audience. Some were lithographs, and some were inserted into other types of literature. The first mass-produced publication to regularly feature kuchi-e designs popular literary magazine Bungei Kurabu, with over 230 individual inserted from 1895 to 1914.

Most measured either 22 x 30 cm or 14 x 20 cm, the former being folded in thirds, and the latter being folded in half.[2]

The general standard of kuchi-e prints is remarkably high. Made at a time of well developed woodblock printing techniques, it is thought the addition of these prints contributed to almost half the cost of production. Still, the genre is under-appreciated as an artfrom by the majority of print collectors.

The standard text on the subject is Merritt and Yamada's Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints—Reflections of Meiji Culture (2000).

Practitioners[]

Artists who designed kuchi-e include , , Kaburagi Kiyokata, , , , , Ogata Gekko, , , Terasaki Kogyo, , , , Watanabe Seitei, and .[3][2]

Translation[]

The word "kuchi-e" (口絵) is usually translated into English as mouth (kuchi) picture (e).[1] However, "kuchi" (口) may also mean opening, as it does in the compound words iri-guchi 入口 (entrance) and de-guchi 出口 (exit). In this way, the translation "entrance picture" more clearly communicates the intended function of a kuchi-e as a frontispiece in a literary work.[4]

Gallery[]

  • "Lady in Wisteria Kimono", , c. 1900, Honolulu Museum of Art

  • "Beauty Sketching in a Field", Mizuno Toshikata, 1903, Honolulu Museum of Art

  • Woodblock kuchi-e for Ai ai gasa by Ikeda Terukata and Shōen, 1914

  • "A Mother's Love", Yamakawa Shūhō 1924

References[]

  • Newland, Amy Reigle. (2005). Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints. Amsterdam: Hotei
  • Merritt, Helen and Yamada Nanako, Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints--Reflections of Meiji Culture, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 2000, ISBN 0824820738
  • Nanako, Yamada, "Beauties as Frontispieces" in Daruma Magazine, Issue 32, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 40–48, 2001

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Newland, p. 463
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Artlino
  3. ^ Oberlin College website
  4. ^ Personal communication with Stephen Salel, Robert F. Lange Foundation Assistant Curator of Japanese Art, Honolulu Museum of Art

External links[]

Media related to Kuchi-e at Wikimedia Commons

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