children (people by age group); kimonos; calligraphy; hairstyles; desks
A young girl with a modern bobbed hair style and a fashionable kimono is seated at a Western style school desk doing calligraphy. She holds her brush as if it were a pen or pencil rather than in the traditional vertical position, as shown in the...
In the 3rd month of the year, special tea ceremonies were held in the Inner Palace when guests and hosts played sophisticated games, such as guessing which types of tea were being served, or exchanged roles. In mawaribana guests took turns...
women; children (people by age group); kimonos; books; clocks; tables (support furniture); cabinets (case furniture); calligraphy
Two girls and their mother are enjoying books. One daughter is kneeling before an open illustrated volume, holding a pointer to help her read. Her sister, standing behind, holds another thread bound book, similar in color to the cover of the one...
men (male humans); women; children (people by age group); kimonos; calligraphy; trees; built works; shores (landforms)
The courtier Suguwara no Michizane (845-903) was unjustly forced from office in Kyoto and sent into exile at Dazaifu, in northern Kyushu. There Michizane taught local children “the secrets of calligraphy,” which became the title of the popular...
Meiji period color woodblock diptych print depicting calligraphy displayed on water, with flowers and trees in the background. The title page for a series of 40 scenes inside the women's quarters of the shogun's palace in Edo.
hair ornaments; calligraphy; mirrors; hand mirrors
To celebrate and document the fashions of former times, Chikanobu created a chronological presentation of beautiful women in sumptuous garments. Above the foreground figures are pictorial insets which make reference to the era of the costume,...
flowers (plants); trees; men (male humans); women; kimonos; calligraphy
The famous linked verse / renga poet Botange Shohaku (1443-1527) is shown reading poetry while riding an ox through the countryside near Osaka in spring.
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...
women; hairstyles; hair ornaments; kimonos; children (people by age group); pictures (object genre)
Meiji period color woodblock print depicting a large head portrait of a young bijin wearing a kimono decorated with colorful calligraphy.
The series, "Mirror of the Ages" presents a group of fifty-three bust portraits of beauties from the Kenmu...
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...
The sisters Gio and Gijo were popular dancers / shirabyoshi in Kyoto, and Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181) was particularly fond of Gio. However when a new dancer named Hotoke gozen attracted Kiyomori's attention, Gio was forced out and went into...
Akoya, an entertainer in Kyoto’s Kiyomizu zaka pleasure quarters, was mistress to the Heike warrior Taira Kagekiyo (died 1196), who was captured at the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185 but had escaped. The Genji commander ordered Hatakeyama Shigetada...
Yoshiwara was the pleasure district of Edo, a city within the city surrounded by high walls and a water moat, which housed Edo's prostitutes from 1617 to 1957. Its courtesans were considered among the "Flowers of Edo." The print combines three...
Between 1885 and 1892 Yoshitoshi published a series of 100 individual woodblock prints depicting figures from Japanese and Chinese legend, history, literature, and theater. These are the contents pages for the series, designed by the calligrapher,...
Meiji period color woodblock triptych print depicting seven women in a room engaged in a poetry composition contest. Three of the women sit before writing tables, brushes in hand, writing poems on narrow strips of paper; a elderly woman sits with...
On a ribbon floating above a globe, the series title is presented in large characters / kanji, with the publisher's name on the right and the artist's name on the left. The sphere has lines suggesting longitude and latitude divisions, resembling a...
