Beauty Looking Back(detail), By Hishikawa Moronobu, Edo period, 17th century
Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 10
September 4, 2012 (Tue) - September 30, 2012 (Sun)
Ukiyo-e, or depictions of everyday life in the Edo period (1603?1868), initially developed in the early Edo period as paintings by artists. After this, woodblock printing developed to enable the mass production of ukiyo-e, and innovative carving and printing techniques led to the accomplishment of multicolored nishiki-e prints. This exhibition features a variety of prints, including early-stage sumizuri-e (black monochrome prints), tan-e (prints colored with orange-red), benizuri-e (primitive polychrome prints) and urushi-e (hand-colored prints with an appearance of black lacquer), as well as uchiwa-e (prints for a round fan) printed in indigo blue, and storybooks. Exceptional paintings are also on display, such as Beauty Looking Back by Hishikawa Moronobu, and Standing Beauty by Kitagawa Utamaro.
Exhibit includes:
Beauty Looking Back, By Hishikawa Moronobu, Edo period, 17th century
Actors Ichikawa Danjuro VII as Mongaku and Matsumoto Koshiro V as Fudo Myo-o (Acalanatha), By Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III), Edo period, 19th century
Standing Beauty, By Kitagawa Utamaro, Edo period, 18th century (Important Art Object, Private collection)
One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, By Katsushika Hokusai, Edo period, 19th century