Ukiyo-e

Celebrating the Harvest Moon with Tsukimi Dango

A special full moon will illuminate the evening sky this Friday night (Sept. 29th, 2023), marking an auspicious occasion in many East Asian cultures. Known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, or Chushu no Meigetsu in Japanese, the celebration signals the beginning of the annual harvest and usually falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar.

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Kabuki Through the Ages: Iconic Plays and Characters in Ukiyo-e

Since the 17th century, kabuki theater has established itself as an integral piece of Japanese art and culture

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A Brief Introduction to Ukiyo-e

While the mention of Japanese woodblock prints may call to mind lavish courtesans and dynamic actors, the roots of the medium can be traced to the 8th century. At this time, woodblock printmaking traveled east with Buddhism through China and Korea, to Japan. In 764, Empress Koken eagerly embraced this medium and commissioned the Hyakumanto Darani, or the “One Million Pagodas and Dharani Prayers.” Each wooden pagoda housed a dainty Buddhist sutra, printed as a declaration of devotion and a plea for atonement. The medium largely retained this religious association and spiritual function until the Edo period (1615-1868).

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A Closer Look: Yorimasa and the Nue

From vengeful spirits to mischievous monsters, ukiyo-e teem with supernatural beings and spine-chilling tales. With Halloween upon us, we turn to one such tale–the story of Yorimasa and the nue–as told by two masters of the fearsome and fantastic, Kuniyoshi and Yoshitoshi. The nue is a chimeral monster with the head of a monkey, the body of a badger (or tanuki), the legs of a tiger, and a hissing snake as a tail, depending on the source.

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Past and Present Convene on the Banks of Tokyo’s Koto Ward

As Tokyo prepared for a summer of international sporting events, the city completed an extensive construction of stadiums and venues around the metropolis to house the competitions. Bordered by the Sumida River to the west and Arakawa River to the east, the Koto Ward is home to the majority of the event locations, given its proximity to the Tokyo Bay and abundance of reclaimed land. The 45 districts of Koto-ku also encompass an area of the city rich in history, where many neighborhoods and landmarks date back to the Edo Period. Documented as one of the oldest hanamachi (geisha entertainment quarters) in Japan, the district of Fukagawa served as the backdrop for many notable ukiyo-e designs. In the print Fukagawa Susaki and Jumantsubo, Hiroshige presents an aerial view of the marshlands, looking northeast on a winter day. In View of the Sangen Teahouse in Snow at Fukagawa Hachiman Shrine in Toto (Edo), Kunisada captures a local beauty trudging through the snow.

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An Artist and His City: Urban Greenspace

In this installment of the Artist and His City series we'll step outside into one of Edo's urban greenspaces through this print Moon Pine, Ueno. This aged pine earned this name not only for the "full moon" created by the circled but also for the other phases of the moon visible in its form.

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An Artist and His City: Unseen Individuals

Now that we have our bearings in Edo, the second installment of the Artist and His City series takes us to a view of Asakusa Ricefields in the midst of the Torinomachi Festival.

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A Closer Look: Courtesan Wakaume From the Tamaya

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) was a true master of ukiyo-e. From his images of bugs to his renowned portraits of women, his works exude a subtle and elegant beauty. This Asia Week, Ronin Gallery is pleased to feature Utamaro's masterpiece, Courtesan Wakaume from the Tamaya in Edomachi 1-chome (c. 1793-1794).

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Spring Showers

Rainy days envelop the senses, from sparkling reflections in the puddles and the steady drum of rain out the window, to the crisp smell of the air just before a storm and the sensation of cool mist against skin. As spring promises brings a change in the weather, we invite you to enjoy the beauty of rain from the warmth and comfort of your home.

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Hanami at Home

While a light chill may still hang in the air, the first blooms of delicate pink petals ensure us that spring has indeed arrived. Through this digital hanami, we invite you to explore splendor of cherry blossoms through artists' eyes.

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An Artist and His City: Getting Our Bearings

An Artist and His City invites you to explore Japan's feudal capital through the eyes of an local. But before we can explore Edo through Hiroshige's eyes, let's orient ourselves in Edo, the city at hand.

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A Closer Look: Moon of the Lonely House

From vengeful ghosts to mythical creatures, Japanese folklore teems with spine-chilling tales of the supernatural. Yet, sometimes it's the horrors enacted by humans that prove to be the most terrifying. This Halloween, we'll take a look at one such story through Yoshitoshi's Moon of the Lonely House.

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Tsukimi and the Harvest Moon

The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumn equinox, which generally occurs in the third week of September. In Japan, the beauty of this special moon is celebrated with tsukimi, or "moon viewing."

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A Closer Look: The Yugao Chapter from The Tale of Genji

In The Yugao Chapter from the Tale of Genji, Yoshitoshi portrays the most mysterious of Genji's many lovers.

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Yoshitoshi's Masterpiece: The Flute Player

Yoshitoshi's Fujiwara no Yasumasa Plays the Flute by Moonlight is considered to be one of Yoshitoshi's definitive masterpieces and has its own interesting history. From the 1880s through today, the design has entranced collectors with its portrayal of the tale of a moonlit evening, banditry, and the power of beauty. We'll take a brief look into the history and variant states of this famous design.

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Haunted at Sea: The Tale of Yoshitsune and the Taira Ghosts

In the triptych Taira Ghosts Attacking Yoshitsune in Daimotsu Bay (1849-1852) , Kuniyoshi presents the legend of Yoshitsune and the vengeful ghosts of the Taira clan.

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The Tale of the 47 Ronin

The celebrated tale of the 47 loyal retainers stems from the historical event known as the Ako incident (1701-1704). Continuously illustrated, adapted, parodied, and performed since its occurrence at turn of the 18th century, this tale of loyalty provided irresistible inspiration for ukiyo-e artists.

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A Closer Look: Hokusai's Great Wave

No single work of Japanese art is better known than Hokusai's Under the Wave off Kanagawa, or, as it is widely known, the Great Wave.Published as part of the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (c.1830-1832), today this design has become embedded in popular culture, appearing everywhere from phone cases and emojis, to murals and political cartoons.

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How to Make a Woodblock Print

The printing process of can be hard to imagine in abstract. Let's turn to a work by Harunobu (1725-1770), father of nishiki-e, to explore the printing the printing process a block at time.

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A Closer Look: Jade Rabbit and Sun Wukong

Songoku, the Monkey King, or Sun Wukong in Chinese, is the hero of the 16th century Chinese novel The Journey to the West. Yoshitoshi presents this legendary monkey in this design from One Hundred Views of the Moon.

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