The act of “carrying” is indispensable in our daily lives. In the Edo period, there were various transportation systems using people, horses, and ships. Edo was a city of water, surrounded by waterfronts such as Edo Bay and the Sumida River,…
Feature image: Katsushika Hokusai “Chin (Japanese spaniel)” (2nd term) Various animals appear in ukiyo-e. In addition to pets such as cats and dogs, and domestic animals such as horses and cows, those believed to be good omens, such as cranes and…
Katsushika Hokusai, the world’s most famous ukiyo-e artist gained acclaim by working on a variety of genres in addition to landscape paintings. But, of course, Hokusai wasn’t the only painter who was active at that time. Many competing ukiyo-e artists…
We’re flooded with information in the modern era and often its difficult to know what to believe. But, during the Edo period it was common to hold strong beliefs in religion, superstition and rumor. From popular beliefs such as Fuji…
Throughout the Edo period the newly wealthy merchant classes came to indulge in the more hedonistic joys of kabuki theater, Geisha and pleasure districts. Ukiyo-e came to document this period of Japan’s history through block prints and paintings, literally translated…
Like a samurai warlord proclaiming a new era after his conquest, the artist Hasegawa Tohaku proclaimed a new era with his brush. Tohaku’s ink painting “Pine Trees” is an enchanting masterpiece that remains shrouded in mystery. Tohaku’s enchanting work, which…
Art Nouveau (French for “new art”) flourished in Europe from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. Japanese art was a formative influence on the style. While on the one hand a cutting-edge art movement,…
Mountain Streams in Summer and Autumn, by Suzuki Kiitsu (1796-1858) depicts a Japanese cypress grove, streams rushing through the rocky mountain side, with a strong sense of reality yet filled with an eerily mysterious feeling. Kiitsu had been the leading…
This exhibition is the fifth in the Introduction to Traditional Art series, which presents traditional art genres and their notable features in an accessible, easy to understand way. The subject this year is a central painting theme: people. Today, paintings…
Katsushika Hokusai’s woodblock print “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” is a long-standing icon in Japan’s art landscape, but many of his other works have remained hidden from the public. Among those to be showcased are his lesser-known paintings from his…
