Paul Binnie (b. 1967) is a Scottish artist who belongs to the modern followers of the woodblock printing technique. The genres of his interest are yakusha-e (kabuki)

A non- shunga scene taking place in a Kabuki theatre. The upper section represents the more expensive seats in boxes that are located slightly higher than the central stage. In the foreground, the audience is..

actor prints), fukeiga (landscape prints), and bijinga (pictures of beautiful women). Apart from woodblock printing, Paul Binnie works with a number of media such as stencil, etching, lithograph, graphite, ink, oil, pastel, and watercolor. In the current article, we’ll examine one of his most popular sets of woodblock designs, A Hundred Shades Of Ink Of Edo, which Binnie created from 2004 to 2015.

Fig. 1. Paul Binnie, 2017 (Wikipedia.org)

Fig. 2. Comparison of contemporary world fashion by Binnie, 2015 (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig. 3. Kabukicho (Tokyo’s entertainment district); scholten-japanese-art.com

Fig. 4. Maiko In Kyoto (binniecatalogue.com)

Avid Collector

Paul Binnie began his way in art by studying art history at the University of Edinburgh. Along with art history, he studied painting and etching at Edinburgh College of Art from 1985 to 1990. Having attained his master’s degree, Binnie relocated from Edinburgh to Paris, where he worked as an art teacher at the Ecole du Louvre and the Atelier Hourde. The artist’s enthusiasm for ukiyo-e emerged already in the years of studies in Edinburgh and urged him to collect prints. As ᴛι̇ɱe went on, the interest in Japanese printing tradition grew, and, in 1993, Binnie traveled to Tokyo to become a printmaker. Until the end of 1998, he lived in Tokyo and studied woodblock printing under the mentorship of Seki Kenji, master printer of Doi publisher. Binnie’s fascination with kabuki and yakusha-e was caused by his location in the capital of Japan: the artist lived in Sendagaya, not far from the National Noh Theatre.

Fig. 5. Sleeping Woɱaп, jigsaw woodblock, 2004 (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig. 6. Sleeping Boy, 1997, jigsaw woodblock, 1997 (binniecatalogue.com)

Acknowledged Printmaker

In 1998, Binnie moved to London and opened his printing studio, where he specialized not only in kabuki prints but also in landscapes and bijinga, making references to well-known ukiyo-e oeuvres. In 2004, Binnie resumed the series of tattoo

Depictions with  tattoos in ukiyo-e   shunga appear since the mid-eighteenth century but not in earlier hand-painted works. The men wearing tattoos represented the underworld of criminal gangs ( yakuza ) and highway..

depictions that he started to work on in Japan. These images would compose the set A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo. In 2015, when the last image of the series was produced, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York purchased the complete collection. The works of Paul Binnie are exhibited in Tokyo, Paris, New York, London, Hong Kong, Sweden, Scotland, and the Netherlands. The most recent work of the artist is the bijinga series Flowers of A Hundred Years, which he began in 2012.

Fig. 7a. Veranda, 2009 (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig. 7b. Utamaro

Kitagawa Utamaro  (1753-1806) is among the five greatest ukiyo-e masters. His refined portrayal of female beauty is virtually unmatched. At the end of his career his work suffered from an artistic decline except for..

’s erotica (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig.7c. Utamaro, By the Mirror, 1802 (ukiyo-e.org)

Shunga Within Bijinga

The series consists of images of male and female nudes

Helmut Newton (1920-2004) was a Gerɱaп-Australian photographer whose works appeared in lots of fashion magazines, like  Vogue , French Vogue , Marie-Claire , Elle , and Playboy . Newton made numerous nude photographs..

tattooed

The extremely talented and prolific Japanese artist Ozuma Kaname, born in Niigata in 1939, was trained in classical Japanese painting by his uncle Sakai Soushi. From all artists from the ‘Golden age’ SM..

with iconic ukiyo-e depictions. One of Binnie’s bijinga girls wears a tattoo of Utamaro’s design from the Ehon Komachi Biki series depicting a ɱaп fingering his wife who does her hair in front of a mirror. Someᴛι̇ɱes, Binnie joins two iconic designs in one tattoo, for instance, he uses two Hiroshige’s prints Ōhashi atake no yūdachi (Sudden Shower Over Ōhashi Bridge and Atake) and Fukagawa Susaki Jūɱaпtsubo (Plain near Fukagawa) where the bird is depicted. The same happens with Hokusai

Japanese greatest artist in history Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) excelled in all ukiyo-e genres. He produced his most iconic designs in the landscape ( The Great Wave ) and the shunga ( The Dream of the..

‘s waterfalls: Binnie combines Shimotsuke Kurokamiyama Kirifuri no taki (Kirifuri Waterfall at Kurokami Mountain in Shimotsuke) with Washū Yoshino Yoshitsune uma arai no taki (The Waterfall Where Yoshitsune Washed His Horse

Warai-e (comic or pornographic picture) is another name for shunga also known as “laughing pictures”. They were not necessarily supposed to be comical but were meant to be more esoteric, as they were..

 at Yoshino in Yamato Province). In other cases, Binnie uses fragments of prints: on the shoulders of two girls, you can recognize the works of Harunobu

Suzuki Harunobu (1725?-70) is often cited as one of the great ukiyo-e print artists, but the magnitude of his reputation as an artist is not matched by the depth of information about the ɱaп himself. His death date is..

and Kiyonaga. Famous blue courtesans by Keisai Eisen

After Hokusai , undoubtedly the most striking figure among the later shunga artists is Keisai Eisen (1790-1848). Eisen was to prove one of the most prolific (together with Kunisada ) of all ukiyo-e shunga masters…

were also paid an homage, as well as Kuniyoshi

Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) famous for his Suikoden Heroes series was also gifted at representing erotic imagery. He is responsible for designing some of the boldest examples in subject and form. The Kuniyoshi prints for..

‘s Cats of Tokaido.

Fig. 8a. Alluring Figure (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig. 8b. Left: Paul Binnie; center: Hiroshige Sudden Shower Over Ōhashi Bridge and Atake, 1857 (scholten-japanese-art.com); right: Plain near Fukagawa, 1857 (Wikipedia.org)

Fig. 9a. Shower (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig. 9b. Paul Binnie, Waterfalls; center: Kirifuri Waterfall at Kurokami Mountain in Shimotsuke, ca. 1834 (Wikipedia.org);right: The Waterfall Where Yoshitsune Washed His Horse at Yoshino in Yamato Province, ca. 1834 (Wikipedia.org)

Fig. 10a. Steam (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig. 10b. Left: Paul Binnie, Harunobu’s Bathtub; right: Harunobu, Two Women Bathing (tallengestore.com)

Fig. 11a. Twilight (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig. 11b. Left: Paul Binnie, Kiyonaga’s Pipe (binniecatalogue.com); right: Kiyonaga’s two women (pinterest.com)

Fig. 12a. Takashimada Hairstyle (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig. 12b. Left: Paul Binnie, Eisen’s Blueprint Pictures (binniecatalogue.com); right: Keisai Eisen Pictures of Modern Figures (Tosei sugata no utsushi-e), ca 1835 (scholten-japanese-art.com)

Fig. 13a. White Cat

In the majority of cases the sexual act depicted in shunga take place in the bedroom, either in a private house, an inn or a brothel. But there is also a great diversity of locations. Sex While Cooking For example,..

, 2004 (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig. 13b. Left: Paul Binnie, Kuniyoshi’s Cats, 2004; right: Kuniyoshi, Cats of Tokaido Road, 1847 (scholten-japanese-art.com)

Here are some works of Paul Binnie in other media:

Fig. 14. Candlelight, Kappazuri stencil, 1994 (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig. 15. Josephine Baker, graphite, 1991 (binniecatalogue.com)

Fig. 16. Brown Osamu, monochrome relief, 1994 (binniecatalogue.com)