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Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) was a Japanese artist and Ukiyo-e woodblock print master.<br/><br/> He is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing. He is additionally regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing.<br/><br/> By the end of his career, Yoshitoshi was in an almost single-handed struggle against time and technology. As he worked on in the old manner, Japan was adopting Western mass reproduction methods like photography and lithography. Nonetheless, in a Japan that was turning away from its own past, he almost singlehandedly managed to push the traditional Japanese woodblock print to a new level, before it effectively died with him.
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) was a Japanese artist and Ukiyo-e woodblock print master.<br/><br/> He is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing. He is additionally regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing.<br/><br/> By the end of his career, Yoshitoshi was in an almost single-handed struggle against time and technology. As he worked on in the old manner, Japan was adopting Western mass reproduction methods like photography and lithography. Nonetheless, in a Japan that was turning away from its own past, he almost singlehandedly managed to push the traditional Japanese woodblock print to a new level, before it effectively died with him.
Chang'e or Chang-o, originally known as Heng'e, is the Chinese goddess of the moon. There are many tales and legends about her in Chinese mythology and folk religion, usually involving her husband Houyi, the elixir of life and the moon, and representing the origin of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.<br/><br/> The general tale goes that in the distant past, ten suns had risen up into the sky to scorch the earth and cause great calamity for the people. The suns were, in some versions of the story, the children of the Jade Emperor, and so he sent the immortal archer Hou Yi to stop their mischief. Hou Yi instead shot down nine of them, leaivng only one in the sky, and therefore was punished by being made mortal and sent down to the earth, where he lived with his wife, Chang'e. In other versions of the tale, he was mortal at first, and freely given the elixir of immortality as a reward for his efforts.<br/><br/> Whatever version of the story, he ends up with the elixir of immortality in his care, but does not consume it right away, wishing to share it with Chang'e. However, while Hou Yi was away, his apprentice Fengmeng, broke into the house and attempted to forcefuly steal the elixir. Chang'e escaped his wrath by consuming the elixir herself, becoming immortal and flying up towards the heavens, eventually landing on the moon. Hou Yi became greatly saddened at what had occurred, and gave sacrifices of fruits and cakes to her memory, and thus the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival came to be, a celebration that still occurs on the full moon night of the eighth lunar month.
Samurai is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class.<br/><br/> The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as Bushidō. While they numbered less than ten percent of Japan's population, samurai teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in martial arts such as Kendō, meaning the way of the sword.