Color Changes (Fading in Ukiyo-e)

The illustration above left is a detail of the lower corner of a print by Torii Kiyonaga, circa mid 1780s. A purple colorant (a mixture of red and blue) was used for the outer kimono, while a blue pigment (possibly aigami (dayflower) was used for the umbrella and inner robes. The purple, fairly well-preserved at the top, has altered noticeably at the bottom to a buff-brown. Similarly, the blue has changed to a buff-gray. Although these are typical states of fading for some translucent vegetal colorants used during the last 30 years or so of the 18th century, in these instances it is likely the blue colorant has reacted to moisture in the air. The colors on the remainder of the print are better preserved, so the assumption here is that the lower left corner was more exposed to air (humidity) than was the rest of the sheet, perhaps during storage in an album or in a stack of prints.

A comparable degree of color change affected the background of a print (above right) by Katsukawa Shunkô (1743-1812), circa late 1780s. Traces of blue can be seen in what has otherwise become a buff-colored ground.

The image above left, a detail of a print by Tôshûsai Sharaku from 5/1794, indicates partial fading or reaction to humidity of a blue pigment on the actor's robe. The fugitive nature of 18th-century colorants, which are altered by photochemical changes during exposure to light or air, is of considerable concern to collectors and curators, but later 19th-century ukiyo-e prints were also made with colorants that were susceptible to changes in hue. The image above right is a detail of a print by Utagawa Kunisada, published in 1826. The area near the lower edge of the sheet has faded from a translucent purple to a light pink or mauve. The sheet may once have been in an album or portfolio where the outermost edges were slightly exposed to light or air.

Mid- to late-nineteenth century Osaka printmakers used a wide range of pigments. Some were saturated and opaque, others were translucent, and their mixtures sometimes variable in appearance. The image above left is a detail from a print by Enjaku issued in 1858 that has faded at the right edge where the sheet was bound in an album. Although very difficult to see here, there is a faint vertical fold along the inside edge of the slightly faded purple area, corresponding to the point where the album had been folded open when viewed. It confirms that limited exposure to light and air had occurred even when the album was closed (the stitch-binding does not enclose the "spine" of such albums). Note, also, that for a different pigment on the same sheet, beni (red), the degree of color change is less in the cartouches (bottom of image on left), adding support for the assumption that the blue in the purple mixture of the robe was altered by expsoure to humidity.

Red colors (in many cases made from the colorant beni) of this period did indeed fade, as is shown above right. These images come from two different sheets of the same design by Enjaku published in 1864 (see also Enjaku Editions). The red color on the bottom sheet has changed to an orange-red hue, while the border, once green (probably a mixture of yellow and blue), has faded towards the blue. This type of fading of red and green is frequently found in the landscape prints of Hiroshige.

Often one encounters an Utagawa Hiroshige print whose foliage (grasses, trees, shrubs) have changed from green to blue. Originally, the green was produced by mixing yellow and green colorants. However, the yellow colorant used in ukiyo-e printmaking was often orpiment, a mineral pigment that turns into a colorless arsenic oxide when exposed to light. This conversion may be confirmed non-invasively by testing for the presence of arsenic.

Also see Fading of a Yoshitaki Print.