acrobats; men (male humans); children (people by age group); boys; girls
According to this poster the Chiarini Italian Circus group would be performing at Akihabara in the Kanda District of Tokyo from the first of September 1886. While Japan had a long tradition of jugglers, acrobats and other circus-like public...
children (people by age group); men (male humans); porches; folding screens; trees; flowers (plants); swords; fusuma
According to the inscription on the left side, this composition was originally a painting by Chikanobu that he entered in the Second Painting Competitive Exhibition / Dai ni Kaiga Kyoshinkai held in 1884. The work received the bronze prize and was...
dance; kimonos; women; boys; men (male humans); screens (furniture)
Lion dance, performed as part of the noh play Mochizuki. Lady Shiragiku, wife of Lord Yasuda, and her son Hanawakamaru watch intently, while Inspector Ozawa dozes. This dance was performed in 1879 for ex- U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant when he...
group portrait; princes; women; kimonos; hairstyles; men (male humans); hair ornaments; flowers (plants); swords; toys (recreational artifacts); children (people by age group); banners; blinds (coverings); porches; carriages (vehicles)
The emperor appears at far left dressed in traditional court robes surrounded by his female attendants, some of whom are helping wheel a baby carriage and toy horses into the palace chamber. Being published in May 1878, this seems like a...
group portrait; women; children (people by age group); swords; kimonos; men (male humans); snowstorms
Lady Tokiwa was a Japanese noblewoman of the late Heian period. A concubine or wife to Minamoto no Yoshitomo, she bore him three sons, one of whom became the great samurai general Minamoto no Yoshitsune. After Yoshitomo's death in 1160, she fled...
legends (folk tales); robes (main garments); children (people by age group); boys; sandals
Back to back print. A man in a priest's robes and headdress cups the chin of a young boy standing beside him; a rosary dangles from his right wrist. The boy, dressed in traveling clothes, grasps the priest's wrist and lays his face in the man's...
men (male humans); women; children (people by age group); hunting; kimonos
These 2 pictures seem to be only tangentially related. At top Tanzi is dressed in deer hide so he could sneak into a herd of deer to get milk for his ailing parents. However, when a hunter was about to shoot the deer, Tanzi revealed his identity,...
men (male humans); women; swords; monks; Gods; waterfalls (natural bodies of water)
The figure crouching on a rock beneath a waterfall is Mongaku (1139-1203), who was born into the Watanabe military clan and initially named Endo Morito. However when he was in his late teens, he decided to become a Buddhist monk and changed his...
porches; blinds (coverings); women; men (male humans); children (people by age group); flowers (plants); trees; kimonos; swords
The Heike leader Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181), at right, stares down at Lady Tokiwa Gozen, whose husband, Minamoto no Yoshitomo (1123-1180), was recently killed. She had fled Kyoto with her three sons, concerned that the Heike forces would kill...
The Soga Brothers were historical figures whose vow of revenge has resonated in kabuki and noh theaters for centuries. Juro Sukenari (1172-1193) and Goro Tokimune (1174-1193) were the children of Kawazu Sukeyasu, an ally of the Taira clan, who was...
The ten year old boy Kusunoki Masatsura (1326-48), following his father's defeat and death at the Battle of Minatogawa in 1336, considered committing suicide, but his mother stopped him, reminding him of his moral obligations to support the emperor...
women; children (people by age group); bats (animals); trees; built works; bridges (built works)
As three bats / komori circle in the evening sky, two boys try to touch them with bamboo sticks while their mother and baby brother look on. Bats have long been a symbol of good luck in Northeast Asia because the words in Chinese for "bat" and for...
women; children (people by age group); boys; helmets; kimonos; spears (weapons); temples (structures); Built complexes and districts;
A boy is dressed like the Buddhist Guardian King Bishamonten, holding a trident and wooden pagoda (that represents the relics of the historical Buddha). The boy's mother holds a calico cat (a "tiger" symbol) while the family servant giggles and...
women; children (people by age group); boys; men (male humans); helmets; kimonos; spears (weapons); temples (structures); Built complexes and districts; girls
A boy is dressed like the Buddhist Guardian King Bishamonten, holding a trident and wooden pagoda (that represents the relics of the historical Buddha). The boy's mother holds a calico cat (a "tiger" symbol) while the family servant giggles and...
women; kimonos; children (people by age group); snow (precipitation); trees; hats
Tokiwa gozen had to flee Kyoto in the dead of winter after her husband Minamoto no Yoshitomo (1123-60) was murdered and their home pillaged. (See Plate 55) Here she clasps to her chest their youngest son Ushiwaka, wrapped in orange brocade; he will...
women; kimonos; flowers (plants); tables (support furniture); calligraphy; hairstyles; hair ornaments; teapots; children (people by age group); swords; figurines
While Japan has many national and regional celebrations, five festivals / gosseku were given particular importance. Chikanobu presents them from right to left: the New Year Festival / Oshogatsu when special gifts are offered on footed trays of...
women; kimonos; parasols; sandals; boys; men (male humans); suits (main garments); balloons (toys); Built complexes and districts; statues
Meiji period color woodblock print. Visitors to Ueno Park stand near a bronze statue of Saigo Takamori. In the foreground a boy in a sailor suit holds a balloon. One woman takes his hand while another stands nearly with an umbrella. Men in...
women; men (male humans); children (people by age group); boys; kimonos; actors; swords; bamboo
This appears to be a variation of "The Bamboo Room" scene from Act II of the play "The Precious Incense and Autumn Flowers of Sendai / Meiboku Sendai hagi." In the standard kabuki play version, the shogun's son Tsuruchiyo is friends with Senmatsu,...
women; men (male humans); children (people by age group); girls; boys; hats; hairstyles; Built complexes and districts; zoos
Two women accompany a young girl in the foreground, while at rear a man in kimono and Western style hat supervises his son and daughter petting a ram at the Tokyo Zoo, founded in 1882 at Ueno Park.
