Japanese Woodblock Prints (1800 - 1868)
By the 19th century, Japanese woodblock prints achieved extraordinary popularity. While the shogunate issued a battery of censorship reforms throughout the 1800s, artists ignored and evaded restrictions with images of indulgent beauties and vibrant kabuki actors. As constraints tightened in the 1840s, bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) became earthier in prints by Eizan and Eisen, while kabuki actors persevered in the work of Kunisada (aka Toyokuni III). During this period, ukiyo-e artists also added landscapes, warriors, ghosts and scenes of everyday life to their oeuvre. Artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige indulged a national wanderlust through Meisho-e or “famous place pictures,” while Kuniyoshi championed musha-e, a genre of warrior and legendary pictures.
15 Products
Kunisada
Act IX from the series The Storehouse of Loyal Retainers, a Primer
JPR-210528
Kunichika
Actors Sawamura Tossho II as Mitsushima Samon, Otani Konohei as a Police Officer (Torite) (R), Nakamura Shikan IV as Jinriki Tamigoro, Nakamura Nakazo III as Kimyo-in (C), Otani Monza as a Bad Guy, and Otani Tomoemon V as Shirataki no Yokichi
JPR-209709
Kuniyoshi
Account of the Loyal Retainers: The Long-awaited Raid
JP-208870
Kuniyoshi
Young Samurai Shume no Kokingo, Igami no Gonta and Gonta's Sister Osato
JPR1-51469
Toyokuni III
Plum Blossoms and Snow through the Window, the Nature of Youth
JP2805
Toyokuni III
Kabuki Actors Seki Sanjuro III as Odera Shobei (R), Ichikawa Kodanji IV (with tattoo arm) as Oniazami Seikichi (C), Iwai Kumezaburo III as Izayoi Osayo (L)
JPR-104030