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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Techniques in Japanese Prints IV – Bokashi Toshidama Gallery By toshidama Bokashi (shading) Probably the most common advanced technique in woodblock prints is termed bokashi which means shading or transition. It is so universal in some artists’ work that it seems barely noticeable but it nevertheless provides extraordinary variety and depth to a print as [...]
What To Look For In A Japanese Print By Alex Faulkner Toshidama Gallery When most people first start to look at Japanese woodblock prints I suppose that they are struck by the colours or the force of the design, a nagging familiarity or perhaps a sense just of beauty and rightness. Certainly it [...]
Giant Spiders – Obscure Meanings in Japanese Prints Part I By Alex Faulkner Toshidama Gallery Arachnophobes – which I’m afraid includes me! – should look away now. Ukiyo-e is littered with the corpses and the dripping fangs of over-sized and fantastical spiders. Something one notices immediately is how similar they all look and [...]
| Today | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
 Thunderstorm 70° | 54° |  Clear 75° | 61° |  Partly Cloudy 75° | 61° |
Japanese Yen Exchange Rate