Japanese Culture and Art in Full Bloom: Isoda Koryusai Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Isoda Koryusai (1735-1790) produced many stunning pieces of art related to culture, females, norms within high culture, and other important areas. Unlike most ukiyo-e artists, Isoda Koryusai was born into an elite samurai household and this aspect certainly influenced his [...]
Okubi-e Portraits By toshidama Okubi-e refers to the distinctive large head to frame ratio of certain ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock print) portraits from eighteenth and nineteenth century Japan. There’s no strict definition here as to what constitutes a portrait as separate to an okubi-e, although there perhaps should be. Much of Japanese woodblock print production was [...]
Japanese God of Fortune and Ainu Kindness: Ebisu the Disabled Child Defeated Adversity Tomoko Hara Modern Tokyo Times Ebisu in old Japan was known by the name of Hiruko which means “leech child” and it is clear that during his early childhood he faced many severe problems. According to Japanese mythology Ebisu came into the [...]
Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan by Richard Gordon Smith (1858-1918) Tomoko Hara and Sarah Deschamps Modern Tokyo Times Richard Gordon Smith was born in 1858 and died in 1918 and during his lifetime he wrote a delightful book called the Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan. He was known for being a very keen [...]
Mimesis – Bunraku Puppets and Living Dolls By toshidama There is a long tradition of puppetry in Japan that stretches back to the seventeenth century. Puppet theatre predates kabuki theatre and informed much of the style, dramas and conventions that kabukiadopted and made its own. Not only does puppet theatre (bunraku) have an important place in Japanese culture but so [...]
Magic in Japan – The Body of the People By toshidama In this case not necessarily the physical body – I’m thinking here of the cultural body and how that relates to the people. When we look at the extraordinary corpus of Japanese woodblock prints from the nineteenth century we are struck firstly by its hermeticism. This [...]
Bathers and Echoes in Japanese Prints and Beyond By Alex Faulkner toshidama As regular readers will know, reference, allusion and quotation are an embedded part of Japanese visual culture. Indeed, the Chazen Museum of Art, Wisconsin recently put on a blockbuster show on this very theme, Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Tokugawa School. [...]
Kuniyoshi to Yoshitoshi – Reviving the Warrior Class By toshidama Cultures turn to mythologies for reassurance – myths define us like daydreams, they show us how we might be. In England, (where we were recently reminded of all those knights in armour at Prime Minister Thatcher’s funeral) pageant remains the drag anchor to change: nostalgia, the [...]
Kyoto Seishu Netsuke Art Museum: Current Exhibition Runs Until April 30 Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The Kyoto Seishu Netsuke Art Museum is a specialist museum which highlights the amazing beauty and craftsmanship of netsuke. Currently, the Spring Exhibition on the Theme of “Next Stage” runs until April 30and the next exhibition will [...]
Japanese Art, Traditional Fashion and a Living Connection in Modern Japan Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Ukiyo-e art in Japan focused on many themes during its “golden period” in the Edo period and carried on into the Meiji era. The world of Japan comes alive visually within many areas of ukiyo-e art because of [...]
Japanese art and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi: Rising Above Health Issues, Poverty and Changing World Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was a great innovator within the world of ukiyo-e and he produced around 10,000 prints during his lifetime. Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) was born during a period of rapid change and this applies to [...]
Shingon Buddhism and the World of Kukai in Timeless Koyasan Michel Lebon and Walter Sebastian Modern Tokyo Times Kukai is one of the most powerful individuals in Japanese history and religion. Today his legacy can be seen throughout Shingon Buddhism and this branch of Buddhism is still growing and developing in new countries. Kukai [...]
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