Focus on Fan print with two bugaku dancers and explain the Aizuri-e.
Also known as aizome-e (藍染絵) and ai-e (藍絵), aizuri-e (藍摺絵) translates literally as "blue printed picture," and describes prints that are produced entirely or predominantly in shades of blue. A counterpart to ostensibly red and pink benizuri-e (紅摺絵), aizuri-e were a late Edo period development. Perhaps due to the fact that single colour prints were cheaper to produce, the aizuri technique was particularly popular for uchiwa-e.In the past, some art historians theorized that aizuri-e arose as a result of an 1841 government ban on the use of lavish colour in the then-dominant nishiki-e (錦絵), multi-coloured woodblock prints. The existence of a number of prominent examples predating the ban, however, suggests that aizuri-e did not simply come about as an alternative to poly-chromatic images. While the earliest recorded use is in an 1829 print by Eisen, Utagawa Sadahide, Hokusai, Hiroshige, Toyokuni II and Kunisada all produced notable examples.
The increased popularity of aizuri-e is directly linked to the 1829 importation of the first synthetic colouring agent to Japan. Known in the west as Prussian Blue, Berlin Blue, or bero (ベロ) as it came to be known, effectively challenged natural indigo as an ukiyo-e mainstay due to its lower price and decreased susceptibility to fading from light exposure. Aizuri has been described by one critic as having "revolutionized landscape prints."
Hokusai ukiyo-e Prussian Blue Aizuri-e Hiroshige nishiki-e Toyokuni II Edo period Eisen indigo Kunisada aizuri-e uchiwa-e Toyokuni I