women; kimonos; hand mirrors; hair ornaments; hairstyles
A beauty applies powder to the back of her neck with a brush. She is using two mirrors to aid her, one before her and a hand mirror held behind her to reflect the back of her head into the first mirror. Fine lines are depicted in the hair reflected...
women; men (male humans); children (people by age group); kimonos; trees; built complexes and districts; hairstyles; hair ornaments
A family returns from the Shinto shrine of Kanda Myojin where they have received blessings for their children, including the baby wrapped in a purple cloak decorated with auspicious symbols. The young boy carries a packet of "1000 year candy" /...
women; girls; kimonos; hair ornaments; hairstyles; waterfalls (natural bodies of water); Japanese gardens; built works
A group of women stand on the banks of a stream in a garden. Behind them stands a cliff, over which falls a waterfall. In the far background a pavilion overlooks the water.
A man in ragged robes sits on the ground before a yellow-flowering bush watching sparrows flying above him. Sanekata was a poet and high-ranking nobleman of the Fujiwara clan. He died in exile in 994. Toward the end of his political career,...
A man in ragged robes sits on the ground before a yellow-flowering bush watching sparrows flying above him. Sanekata was a poet and high-ranking nobleman of the Fujiwara clan. He died in exile in 994. Toward the end of his political career,...
depictions; men (male humans); women; children (people by age group); kimonos; interior spaces; fude; artists' brushes
A man with a handlebar mustache kneels on a red rug drawing irises on paper with an ink brush. A woman holding a towel and wearing a half-dozen hairsticks in her elaborate coiffure stands beside him. A small child sits at her feet stirring...
A woman in an ornately patterned blue kimono stands before a flowering tree. A box is tucked into the edge of the red kimono she wears beneath the blue one; beneath this we see three white layers. She wears a cluster of gold flowers on each side of...
A woman, in distress, is jumping in a river. The moon is setting and two white herons rise from the water near her. The story behind the image is: When her father lost his money and was jailed, Chikako tried to win his release. To prove herself a...
A young beauty looks away from the viewer, glancing back over her left shoulder. She wears a comb and a flowered hair ornament with a blue and white tassel in her hair and a ring on her left hand. Three layers of kimono are visible: a gray...
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...
courtesans; trees; flowers (plants); women; children (people by age group); men (male humans); kimonos; Single Built Works; hairstyles; hair ornaments
An elegantly dressed Yoshiwara courtesan looks on while a little boy, held by his mother, ties a poem sheet to a blossoming branch. A servant peeks from behind a broken umbrella, and two men dance in the background.
women; elderly; kimonos; men (male humans); hats; Single Built Works; trees; fences; hand spinning; bridges
An image from the series of parodies of the Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety, in which a bijin with a green sack stands at a gate, while an old woman can be seen in the interior of the house behind the gate. The inset shows a young man and...
legends (folk tales); women; kimonos; lanterns; children (people by age group); fusuma; interior spaces; foxes (animals)
An image of a woman, with a fox's head (seen through a screen) walking through a door, leaving her child behind in the house. Foxes, or kitsune, are mysterious, magical creatures with powers many times greater than those of badgers. Sometimes...
women; men (male humans); oxen; landscapes (representations); trees
An ox, carrying bales of rice, loses it's footing on a mountain road and begins to fall over the edge. Ueno, the wife of Shimizu, the provincial governor of Kazusa, with a superhuman effort pulls the heavily burdened beast back on to the roadway;...
Back to back print. A man in a blue robe and a black samurai hat stands holding a fan; a younger man in a red kimono and holding a sword sits at his feet. Behind them is a screen painted with crane, and through an open doorway one can see a stone...
Back to back print. A warrior in armor carries another across his back from the battlefield. The battle behind him is represented by black, swirling clouds and red flashes. Okubo Hikozaemon (1560-1639) was one of Tokugawa Ieyasu's trusted generals...
Back to back print. The warrior Minamoto Yoshitomo (1123-1160) died in his efforts to overthrow the imperial chancellor Taira Kiyomori. Here Yoshitomo is shown bidding farewell to his wife Lady Tokiwa just before departing on his unsuccessful...
mythology (literary genre); children (people by age group); men (male humans); mirrors; robes (main garments); hats; kimonos; supernatural
Enma (the demon king of the underword) is showing the boy Zennojo his father's crimes in a magic mirror. The child Zennojo crouches before the mirror held by a red demon. Behind him, a blue, horned demon stands, pointing at the mirror and showing...
Four of the great Meiji Period kabuki actors are represented in this triptych. Nakamura Shikan IV (1830-1899) in the role of Takeda Shingen (1521-1573) is at far right, next to Ichikawa Danjuro IX (1839-1903) playing the part of Rakuganji...
women; men (male humans); children (people by age group); parasols; Built complexes and districts; costume; hats; sandals
From one of the gate towers of Edo Castle, the shogun and his advisers observe the testing of munitions in nearby Edo Bay. The circular inset shows the launch tower for the explosives, with a paper lantern bearing the inscription "Official Use" /...
