Japanese art and culture: Ogata Gekko, Japanese ladies and ukiyo-e Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Ogata Gekko was a very individualistic artist and he had a rich style which was based on his upbringing. This applies to mainly being self-taught but this can be over-played because his free spirit was from within and times [...]
West Meets East in Japanese Prints (earlier than expected) by toshidama Most people tend to think of Japan as being sealed from the rest of the world until Commander Perry’s famous gunboat diplomacy of 1854. This is true in the main but there are notable examples of Dutch fraternisation prior to the reforms that led to [...]
Utagawa Toyokuni and ukiyo-e: a modest artist who was graceful Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Utagawa Toyokuni was born in 1769 and died in 1825 and he gave a rather negative comment about his artistic merits. Indeed, many individuals have wide opinions about Toyokuni and he himself reportedly commented that “My pictures – they [...]
Cezanne and Hokusai and the Mountainous Motif By toshidama Here are two great artists of the nineteenth century – innovators, visionaries and both of them artists of great influence. Both Hokusai and Cezanne have in different ways exerted huge influence over the course of art, certainly in the west during the crucial period of the avante [...]
Gajo – Traditional Bindings for Japanese Woodblock Prints By toshidama There’s a fantastic feeling that you get when you hold a perfect ukiyo print in your hands, one that has escaped the ravages of time. Edo (Tokyo) has been plagued by fires which were so frequent in the past that they were referred [...]
Boys and Girls… Gender, Kabuki and Japanese Prints By toshidama Japanese prints can be confusing territory for those seeking certainty. Artists of the ukiyo-e revelled in “look and compare” pictures or mitate-e as it is called. Borrowing from the traditions of poetry, mitate-e pictures play ironically with the knowingness of the audience, substituting contemporary actors for [...]
Japanese Warrior Prints – Reverie and Reportage By toshidama Woodblock prints of Japanese warriors tended to dominate the ukiyo-e scene from the 1820’s until nearly the end of the century. What is surprising is how so many prints were produced of battles, skirmishes, victories and defeats without actually witnessing any. Japan had experienced an unprecedented period [...]
Ogata Gekko: ukiyo-e and the self-taught artist Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Ogata Gekko lived between 1859 and 1920 and this period witnessed the modernization of Japan after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The same period would also see major changes in the art field because modern technology and international links would introduce major [...]
Kunichika at The Toshidama Gallery By toshidama “‘A gorgeous view, a gorgeous view, even a thousand pieces of gold is too little to pay for spring’s splendid scenery.” So remarked Ishikawa Goemon, looking out from on top of Nanzen-ji temple’s Sanmon Gate. How wonderful that Toyohara Kunchika decided to paint this great thief! Whether it’s Yukihime, [...]
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi: a glimpse into the rich art of a man of creativity Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was a great innovator of ukiyo-e and he produced around 10,000 prints. Yoshitoshi was born in 1839 and died in 1892 and his lifetime witnessed the old feudal ways of the Edo period and [...]
Women and the Floating World By toshidama I guess it is to be both anticipated and regretted that the women of Japan who were once the great writers and poets and priestesses, not to say robbers and warriors of their culture, should have been reduced by the middle of the nineteenth century to the status of [...]
Katsushika Hokusai and Nobuyoshi Araki: Who is the more erotic? Part 3 of Hokusai Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Katsushika Hokusai was born in 1760 and Nobuyoshi Araki was born in 1940 and today Araki still continues to take photo images. Hokusai is famously known throughout the world for The Great Wave off Kanagawa [...]
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