Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji: Viewing the Sunset over Ryogoku Bridge from the Onmaya Embankment (detail), By Katsushika Hokusai, Edo period, 19th century
Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 10
February 27, 2018 (Tue) - March 18, 2018 (Sun)
The genre of ukiyo-e, which depicts the common people of the Edo period (1603–1868), first consisted of only hand-painted works. Mass production of ukiyo-e later became possible through woodblock printing, while advances in carving and printing techniques eventually led to the creation of multi-colored prints called nishiki-e. This exhibition features the chronology of woodblock printing techniques beginning from early notable works such as Hishikawa Moronobu’s monochrome prints, and Kaigetsudo Dohan’s tan-e black-and-red colored prints, to later creations, such as uki-e perspective prints invented by Okumura Masanobu, hashira-e oblong prints, Ishikawa Toyonobu’s benizuri-e, an early type of multicolor prints, Suzuki Harunobu’s nishiki-e prints, and finally, Katsushika Hokusai’s landscape prints. In addition, hand-painted masterworks such as portraits and votive plaques illustrate the vast variety in the world of ukiyo-e, a reflection of Edo culture that was widely influential at the time.
Current exhibit includes:
Yanone Goro, By Torii Kiyonaga, Edo period, dated 1810 (Important Art Object, Lent by Jyoujuin, Tokyo)
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji: Viewing the Sunset over Ryogoku Bridge from the Onmaya Embankment, By Katsushika Hokusai, Edo period, 19th century
Gotenyama and Matsuchiyama in the Eastern Capital, By Utagawa Hiroshige, Edo period, 19th century
Craftsmen at Work in the Early Modern Era, By Kuwagata Keisai, Edo period, 19th century