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Glass painting of ships from Europe.
Nagasaki
Edo Period, 19th Century
Width 54.8 cm
Below text courtesy of JAANUS.
Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System
Garasu-e = Glass painting. Oil or thick pigments are mixed with glue and applied to the reverse sides of glass plates, to be viewed from the opposite side when finished. Opaque pigments must be applied first, which is the reverse of usual painting application. Because of the thickness of the pigments, the overall impression can sometimes be somewhat gaudy. Glass painting is thought to have been introduced to Japan in 1663 from Holland, but examples also entered via China. Such paintings were popular during the middle through late Edo period and most of them were produced in Nagasaki, the port where they first entered. Ishizaki Yuushi (1768-1846) and Araki Jogen (1765-1824) are the most famous glass painters of the Edo period, but both Shiba Koukan (1747-1818) and Katsushika Hokusai (1769-1849) claimed in their writings to have worked in this medium. However these pieces do not survive. Most of the extant glass paintings from the end of the Edo period are by ukiyo-e (woodblock) artists of the Utagawa school (Utagawa-ha) who painted subjects of beauties, general scenes, and birds and flowers.
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