Japan: The priest Mongaku crouching beneath a waterfall. Ukiyo-e woodblock print by (Toyohara) Yoshu Chikanobu (1838-1912)

The figure crouching on a rock beneath a waterfall is Mongaku (1139-1203), who was born into the Watanabe military clan and initially named Endo Morito.

However, when he was in his late teens, he decided to become a Buddhist monk and changed his name to Mongaku. To test his spiritual sincerity and physical endurance, he travelled in the middle of winter to the Province of Ki where he planned to practice austerities by standing in the icy cold Nachi Waterfalls for 21 days while reciting 300,000 incantations to the deity Fudo Myoo.

Toyohara Chikanobu (豊原周延) (1838–1912), better known to his contemporaries as Yōshū Chikanobu (楊洲周延), was a prolific woodblock artist of Japan's Meiji period. His works capture the transition from the age of the samurai to Meiji modernity.

In 1875 (Meiji 8), he decided to try to make a living as an artist. He travelled to Tokyo. He found work as an artist for the Kaishin Shimbun. In addition, he produced nishiki-e artworks. In his younger days, he had studied the Kanō school of painting; but his interest was drawn to ukiyo-e.

Like many ukiyo-e artists, Chikanobu turned his attention towards a great variety of subjects. His work ranged from Japanese mythology to depictions of the battlefields of his lifetime to women's fashions. As well as a number of the other artists of this period, he too portrayed kabuki actors in character, and is well-known for his impressions of the mie (formal pose) of kabuki productions.

Chikanobu was known as a master of bijinga, images of beautiful women, and for illustrating changes in women's fashion, including both traditional and Western clothing. His work illustrated the changes in coiffures and make-up across time. For example, in Chikanobu's images in Mirror of Ages (1897), the hair styles of the Tenmei era, 1781-1789 are distinguished from those of the Keio era, 1865-1867.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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Pictures From History

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