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.
168 Products
Toyokuni III
Poem by Fujiwara no Takamitsu: Kabuki Actor Sawamura Gennosuke as Yorikane
JPR1-70963
Toyokuni III
Poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaru: Kabuki Actor Iwai Kumezaburo as Matsuura Sayohime
JPR1-70958
Kunisada II (aka Kunimasa III, Toyokuni IV)
Chapter 2: Hahakigi (The Broom Tree)
JP1083
Kunisada II (aka Kunimasa III, Toyokuni IV)
Kabuki Actor Segawa Kikunojo V as Nun Myochin
JPR-77551