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.
140 Products
Toyokuni III
Onoe Kikugoro III as the Ghost of Yasukata: Poem by Nakatsukasa
JP2763
Toyokuni III
Ichikawa Danjuro VIII as Endo Musha: Poem by Fujiwara no Nakafumi
JP5492
Hokushu
Kabuki Actor Nakamura Utaemon III as Ishikawa Goemon at the Okehazama Battle
JP00140
Tamikuni
Arashi Kitsuzaburo as Sumo Wrestler Horikoma Chokichi
JP5032
Utamaro
First Performance by a Young Geisha: Tenaraiko
JPR-209158