Japanese Ukiyo-e in a Changing Artistic Landscape: Chikanobu and the Impact of Modernity Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times Yoshu Chikanobu (Toyohara Chikanobu) lived between 1838 and 1912 and much of his art highlights the changing nature of Japan. The opening up of the land of the rising sun after the Meiji Restoration provided many [...]
Bonsai Trees in Japanese Prints – Small is Beautiful By toshidama I suppose that if you were to ask most people about traditional Japanese culture, they would talk about geishas and samurai, sushi, kimonos and bonsai trees. It’s likely though that few people would know much about the bonsai tree and probably would not have seen one. [...]
There – Not There – Woodblock Prints and the Work of Paul Morrison By toshidama In ukiyo-e, as in all prints produced from blocks, there is little margin for hesitation – no grey area for the artist to prevaricate. In relief printing at its most basic, there is only the presence of a mark (black or [...]
Japanese Prints In Context – Kunisada Warriors By toshidama It’s a fact of history that it is not always the person that first conceived something that is remembered so much as the person who made it famous. In ukiyo-e, this is particularly true of one of the nineteenth century’s most lasting and noticeable genres – the musha-e or warrior [...]
On Being a Picture Dealer & The Trouble With Hiroshige By toshidama I’ve combined two posts here because they are related. To start with I’d like to look at the relationships between dealer, artwork, value and marketplace. Let’s start with the dealer. As in every walk of life, no two dealers or galleries are the same, [...]
Japanese Art and Ukiyo-e: Ghost of Koheiji by Konishi Hirosada and Evil Akuba Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The power of the Shinto faith runs deep throughout the fabric of Japanese religion, folklore, culture and other important aspects of society. Buddhism which emanated from outside of Japan would also greatly impact itself within the [...]
One Hundred Years of Ukiyo-e at Toshidama Gallery By toshidama Japanese woodblock prints had been fairly commonplace on the Edo scene by the turn of the nineteenth century. What we now term the ‘classical school’; that is, the artists that were satellites of Moronobu, Utamaru, Haronobu and Masanobu, were becoming old and the work – it [...]
Kabuki Stagecraft #1: Now You See It – Now You Don’t Alex Faulkner By toshidama Something which becomes slowly apparent the more that one leafs through ukiyo prints of the nineteenth century, is setting and representation of the business of the stage. Kabuki theatre represents the greatest subject for Japanese woodblock artists of the period and yet [...]
Paper Sizes in Japanese Woodblock Prints Alex Faulkner By toshidama It’s very confusing for people visiting Japanese print galleries – especially online – to see prints described as oban or chuban or kakemono-e with no great explanation of what that means. I thought we’d sort out what these sizes are, why they are as they [...]
Japanese art and culture: Ukiyo-e and a spirit without boundaries Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The amazing aspect of ukiyo-e is that nothing is hidden and you can witness stunning landscapes, the world of sinister ghosts, elegant fashion, beautiful ladies, murders, military ventures, holy religious leaders, strong images of sexuality whereby nothing is deemed [...]
Paper Sizes in Japanese Woodblock Prints Alex Faulkner Toshidama Gallery It’s very confusing for people visiting Japanese print galleries – especially online – to see prints described as oban or chuban or kakemono-e with no great explanation of what that means. I thought we’d sort out what these sizes are, why they are as they [...]
The Pachyderm in the Room – Kuniyoshi’s Elephant By toshidama The elephant has long presented artists of all genres with a problem. The elephant is exotic, clearly enormous and spectacular but in captivity it lacks the dynamism, the heroism that its reputation suggests. Very few artists have successfully represented the elephant and because of the [...]
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