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,...
A young woman and her puppy represent the Kan'ei era, a time when the Tokugawa shogunate was consolidating its power in Edo but still viewing the imperial capital of Kyoto as the center of Japanese culture. The bold designs on her kimono and the...
group portrait; princes; women; kimonos; hairstyles; men (male humans); hair ornaments; flowers (plants); swords; toys (recreational artifacts); children (people by age group); banners; blinds (coverings); porches; carriages (vehicles)
The emperor appears at far left dressed in traditional court robes surrounded by his female attendants, some of whom are helping wheel a baby carriage and toy horses into the palace chamber. Being published in May 1878, this seems like a...
Print of a courtesan, tying a scarf on her head. This series of 24 images of courtesans shows typical moments of the various times of day. The licensed brothels in South-Central Tokyo would close at dawn and here a prostitute prepares to leave...
An image of monsters coming out of a basket, threatening an old man. An old man and an old woman were neighbors. Every evening the old man fed a sparrow that visited him. When he returned home one day he was disturbed not to see the sparrow and...
An older woman with shaved eyebrows, indicating her married status, is nicely but conservatively dressed. Her plaid inner robe is typical of late Edo Period fashions in the city of Edo, often influenced by kabuki stage costume textiles. She might...
women; kimonos; children (people by age group); snow (precipitation); trees; hats
Tokiwa gozen had to flee Kyoto in the dead of winter after her husband Minamoto no Yoshitomo (1123-60) was murdered and their home pillaged. (See Plate 55) Here she clasps to her chest their youngest son Ushiwaka, wrapped in orange brocade; he will...
