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...
portrait; men (male humans); robes (main garments); stringed instruments (musical instruments); biwa; women; trees
After the Hogen Rebellion in 1156, the courtier and musician Fujiwara no Moronaga (1137-1192) was exiled to the island of Shikoku. That autumn he consoled himself with a visit to Mt. Miyaji. Yoshitoshi depicts Fujiwara no Moronaga playing a biwa by...
portrait; men (male humans); robes (main garments); stringed instruments (musical instruments); biwa; women; trees
After the Hogen Rebellion in 1156, the courtier and musician Fujiwara no Moronaga (1137-1192) was exiled to the island of Shikoku. That autumn he consoled himself with a visit to Mt. Miyaji. Yoshitoshi depicts Fujiwara no Moronaga playing a biwa...
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...
women; children (people by age group); kimonos; sandals; hairstyles; fences
As evening begins to fall, four children are playing outside a fenced compound by casting shadows in the moonlight. The pudgy boy in a light-weight cotton robe / yukata seems almost surprised by his hand shape on the ground. While his two older...
At New Year's playing with silk thread balls / itomari was popular among girls and women. Such hand balls / temari were filled with natural sponges for bouncing or with cloth or hair if used for rolling, tossing or just decoration. Here two older...
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); costume; hairstyles; hair ornaments; hats; headgear; actors
Chikanobu provided illustrations for a number of board games and playing cards. These 3 sheets with 27 portraits of kabuki actors were probably published between 1882 when Nakamura Sennosuke (1860-1926) took the stage name Sawamura Tosshi VII and...
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...
men (male humans); women; Japanese maple; kimonos; mountains; trees; biwa
Fujiwara no Moronaga (1137-1192) was famous as a lute or biwa musician but unfortunate in his political career, as he kept running afoul of Taira no Kiyomori, who first exiled him in 1165 to Kyushu for 8 years and then in 1179 to Owari Province...
In the 11th century novel Tale of Genji, the Third Princess, young wife of the middle age Prince Genji, ventures to the verandah of her quarters to observe some courtiers playing kickball / kemari. Although she is supposed to stay hidden behind...
In the autumn fashionable geisha would dress in their lover's garments to visit the neighborhood shrine and participate in Niwaka kyogen, impromptu skits about life in the brothels. Dressed like an elegant young man, a young lady glances up at a...
men (male humans); women; Japanese maple; kimonos; mountains; trees; biwa; mountains
Meiji period color woodblock image from the series, "Snow, Moon, Flower." In the image the Imperial Cabinet Minister (Taisei Daijin) Moronaga is interrupted while playing a Biwa by a water god (Suijin). In the inset a hairy fox-eared beast, the...
card games (physical activities); kimonos; women; girls; hairstyles; elderly; eyeglasses
Meiji period color woodblock triptych print depicting three women playing cards, wearing elaborate kimonos. A servant and a young girl are also in the scene. Part of a series of 40 scenes inside the women's quarters of the shogun's palace in Edo.
Meiji period color woodblock triptych print of a group of women playing a badminton game. Part of a series of 40 scenes inside the women's quarters of the shogun's palace in Edo.
Once upon a time, a woodcutter saved a badger's life. In gratitude the badger, which, like a fox, is capable of many transformations (see no. 3), turned itself into a tea kettle. The woodcutter sold the kettle to a priest at Morin Temple in the...
Part of a series of 40 prints of scenes set inside the women's quarters of the shogun's palace in Edo depicting the leisure activities of high-born women. Here two elegantly dressed women play backgammon. One of the women sits behind a screen; she...
The Battles of Coxinga/ Kokusenya kassen is based on the true adventures of Coxinga/ Watonai, a warrior of Chinese and Japanese parentage, who fought for the restoration of the Ming Chinese government after its defeat in the 17th c. by Manchu...
children (people by age group); women; kimonos; musical instruments; lanterns (lighting devices); bridges (built works); zithers
The young boy Ushiwakamaru (later known as Minamoto no Yoshitsune 1159-1189) is shown in the garden, talking with a servant of Princess Joruri, who is playing a zither / koto. According to the 15th century Joruri-hime monogatari, Joruri was the...
men (male humans); flowers; swords; kimonos; boats; flowers (plants)
The young woman Miyuki met Miyagi one evening; she gave him a fan with morning glory flowers asagao, and he composed a poem for her about the blossoms, according to the Asagao nikki. In the morning they parted, although their boats passed at...
