On the 7th day of the new year, the shogun presented the Inner Palace with large cakes of pounded rice / mochi. Making and eating mochi is still a popular new year's celebration, with small mochi cakes in a vegetable stew / ozoni being a popular...
women; men (male humans); folding screens; kimonos; knives
According to the text panel, which reads like a police report, Tokunaga Bin attacked and stabbed seven people at the Sugidoya in the New Yoshiwara pleasure quarters on the 23rd day of the 7th month of 1879. A native of Fukushima Prefecture, this...
Back to back print. A man in a blue kimono and hakama stands and reaches for his sword at his side, while a woman in voluminous robes lies at his feet on the ground.
Kusunoki Masatsura (1326-1348) was one of those samurai doomed to a brief life...
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,...
This later Setsu gekka series, which numbers at least 30 prints, is rather lyrical in its depiction of seasonal change. Flower petals flutter to the ground as a little dog tugs on its leash. Mist crosses a full summer moon as Niwaka Festival...
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; kimonos; built works; built complexes and districts
The esoteric Buddhist deity Marishiten is of Indian origin, the daughter of Brahma (J: Bonten) and associated with rays of the sun. Images of Marishi have multiple arms and faces and are shown riding a wild boar, hence the association with this...
actors; built works; trees; men (male humans); kimonos; hats; hair ornaments; flowers; arrows; bells (idiophones); swords
Actors gather outside the main hall of the Ooku residential area to give a special performance for the new year on the first "horse day" of the 2nd month (according to the zodiac calendar). One actor carries a hunting bird while another actor is...
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...
Emperors; courts (social groups); fountains; kimonos; military uniforms; lanterns (lighting devices); flags; trees; Built complexes and districts; clock towers; bands (ensembles)
The emperor and court ladies stand between two fountains that flank the entry into the Ueno Park compound housing the Second National Industrial Exhibition that was open to the public from 01 March to 30 June 1881. Such fairs followed European and...
Two women and a girl prepare musical instruments for a concert. The woman at center holds a lute or biwa, that is ornamented with a plectrum guard featuring a deer under a full moon. The biwa was popular as an accompanying instrument to songs and...
legends (folk tales); men (male humans); women; children (people by age group); swords; kimonos; waterfalls (natural bodies of water); baskets
The 24 Paragons of Filial Piety are based on a compilation of Confucian tales of exemplary behavior by children to their elders. In this tale, Chi Shun went into the forest to gather mulberries for his widowed mother, throwing the ripe, black...
This scene is from the 2nd act of the long play "The Precious Incense and Autumn Flowers of Sendai" / Meiboku Sendai hagi, first written in 1777 for the Osaka kabuki stage in and then greatly expanded in 1785 for the puppet theater, the reverse of...
women; men (male humans); kimonos; lanterns (lighting devices); waterfalls (natural bodies of water); hats; pipes (smoking equipment); sandals; Japanese maple; built works; palanquins
The Nikko area in the mountains north of Edo/Tokyo is famous for autumn colors and for the many waterfalls that feed into Lake Chuzenji. In this view Hannya is on the right and the higher Hoto at left. Chikanobu shows two elegantly dressed ladies,...
Lord Nabeshima Naoshige (1538-1618), the military governor (daimyo) of Hizen Province, is being threatened by the Cat Monster of Saga, which is seeking revenge for the deaths of Ryuzoji Matahichiro and his mother. Killer cats have long been a...
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...
men (male humans); women; kimonos; military uniforms; hats; swords; chandeliers; murals (any medium); interior spaces
A Meiji government official dressed in his Western style military uniform receives his cockaded hat from one female attendant while another holds his European style sword. The group stands in a Western style building, probably the home of this...
Lord Nabeshima Naoshige (1538-1618), the military governor (daimyo) of Hizen Province, is being threatened by the Cat Monster of Saga, which is seeking revenge for the deaths of Ryuzoji Matahichiro and his mother. Killer cats have long been a...
Princess Chujo was asked to safeguard a statue of Kannon. Her wicked stepmother Iwane gozen stole the image and then accused Chujo of losing it. Here Chujo is being attacked by Lady Kasuga, using a tobacco pipe, and another woman, who succeed in...
Rakugo / "humorous storytelling" is shown in the circular scene, with the narrator seated on a stage before an audience of young and old. A wall poster suggests that this is the famous Enshi Danshuro (1838-1900) who was popular for his tales based...
