women; men (male humans); kimonos; folding screens; flowers (plants); swords
Princess Sen (1597-1666) was the oldest daughter of Tokugawa Hidetada and married at age 7 to Toyotomi Hideyori who died in 1615 at the Battle of Osaka Castle. She was then married to Honda Tadatoki, a Tokugawa ally, but when Tadatoki died in 1626,...
men (male humans); women; kimonos; snow (precipitation); skull (skeleton component)
Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181), leader of the Heike, was ruthless in his pursuit of political power, crushing the Genji clan in 1160, taking the position of Chancellor in 1167, marrying his daughter to Emperor Takakura, placing the retired Emperor...
On the second floor of a Western-style building, probably the famous Rokumeikan, Japanese couples appear to be taking dancing lessons, accompanied by two pianists. The young people seem awkward in movement and intent in their expressions,...
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...
women; children (people by age group); elderly; kimonos; fans (costume accessories); porches; gardens; Japanese maple; lanterns (lighting devices)
In print #6 Chikanobu has inverted the filial piety narratives: Cui Nanshan’s young wife Lady Tang willing suckles her husband’s great grandmother, who has no teeth, but in the Japanese scene, a mother attracts her baby son to come nurse. The...
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...
men (male humans); women; kimonos; Single Built Works; trees; sandals
Meiji period color woodblock print, depicting a young beauty tying up her sandal laces as she and another girl, balancing a pile of kindling on her head, are preparing to walk home.
The book entitled The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Virtue was...
Modern and traditional ships pass by a mountain range at sea. In a vertical composition, Yoshitoshi updates the horizontal print by Hiroshige. A paddlewheel steamship plows through the waters at Maisaka as a traditional samurai views the future of...
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...
A woman with a large yellow and black umbrella (open) is accompanied by three white herons. The relationship of the animal kingdom to the world of human beings is close in rural societies. People feel a kinship with the wild creatures around them. ...
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...
