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.
trees; flowers (plants); men (male humans); women; kimonos; waterfalls (natural bodies of water)
Oguri Hangan, searching for stolen family treasures in Yokoyama, finds his missing fiancee, Princess Terute, working incognito as a maid in the house of a rice merchant. The merchant's daughter, who also loves Hangan, attempts to kill Terute out of...
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...
men (male humans); women; kimonos; military uniforms; chairs; daises; fans (costume accessories); hair ornaments; drums (membranophones); flowers (plants); vases
The emperor and empress sit on the dais in the background overseeing the presentation of the Emperor's Gift Cups to military leaders involved in quelling Saigu's Satsuma Rebellion. Yamagata Aritomo, Commander of the Imperial Army in Kyushu, 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...
Takiyasha, the third daughter of the rebel Taira no Masakado (died 940) is shown carrying a sword, bell and torchlight, as she prepares to destroy Oya no Taro Mitsukuni, who had been sent to inspect the ruins of Masakado fortress following its...
"At 3 am on July 29 a battle commenced and after five hours our troops were completely victorious" begins the text panel account of this print. Chikanobu depicts two officers leading the assault with the nation's flag held high. A Chinese canon in...
women; children (people by age group); kimonos; fans (costume accessories); oil lamps; fruit; stoves (heating equipment); Single Built Works; tables (support furniture); men (male humans)
Meiji period color woodblock print from the "Parody of 24 Paragons of Filial Piety" series, depicting the dutiful son Gomo eating a pomegranate. Above them Wu Meng has lit a smoking fire to protect his father from mosquitoes.
In an abstract space, a woman sits with her kitten next to a sewing box. She holds a ruler and has a bolt of cloth on her lap. This scene seems timeless and quite tranquil, although her attention is attracted to someone or something outside the...
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...
Although a trusted retainer of the warlord Oda Nobunaga (1510-1551), Akechi Mitsuhide (1528-1582) was enraged when Nobunaga murdered his mother. Mitsuhide attacked Nobunaga at the Kyoto temple of Honno-ji, setting it afire. Nobunaga reportedly...
women; hats; veils (headcloths); kimonos; children (people by age group)
Dressed in a black lacquered hat with a broad brim and a delicate silk gauze veil, this woman appears to be in a traveling outfit. Perhaps she is supposed to be a court lady traveling between the Southern Court of emperor GoDaigo (1288-1339) in...
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...
Beyond the bamboo lattice of a folding screen sit three women: the flute / yokobue player (in nearly full view) accompanies shamisen and koto musicians (who are hidden by the partition). The delicate wave patterns in silver on the screen panels...
porches; dwellings; Single Built Works; women; kimonos; children (people by age group); men (male humans); infants; fans (costume accessories); toys (recreational artifacts); stoves (heating equipment); lanterns (lighting devices); Japanese maple
Print. no. 6 from the series of parodies of the Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety. The top panel illustrated the story of Lady Tang who breast fed her elderly, toothless mother-in-law. In the lower panel a baby is crawling toward its mother, who...
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.
A girl and 7 women watch a performance of noh / no theater in which dancers dressed as 2 Chinese lions / Kara shishi frolic amidst peony flowers. Lion dances / shishi mai have a long history in China and Japan, often associated with protecting a...
dolls; tables (support furniture); women; kimonos; hairstyles; hair ornaments; gardens; Built complexes and districts; streams
A group of women stand on the banks of a stream. One pushes a small raft loaded with food and drink across the stream with a pole towards two women who wait to receive it. In the background, houses on pilings line the edges of the steam and a...
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...
armor (protective wear); warriors; men (male humans); women; swords; children (people by age group); hairstyles; hair ornaments; kimonos; trees; flowers (plants); lanterns (lighting devices); built works
Taira no Kagekiyo (died 1196) fought against the Genji troops in 1185 at Dan-no-ura. Here his beloved Akoya, a courtesan of the Kyoto licensed quarters in the foothills at Fifth Avenue / Gojozaka, sees him off. (See plate 228 for the interrogation...
