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Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-1889) was a 19th century Japanese artist described by some as 'perhaps the last virtuoso in traditional Japanese painting'. Born in Koga, Kyosai was the son of a samurai and was briefly tutored under Utagawa Kuniyoshi before settling in the Kano school.<br/><br/> Kyosai picked up a reputation for himself as a caricaturist, the first political caricaturist in Japan, after the revolution of 1867 that led to the Meiji Restoration. His caricatures resulted in multiple arrests and imprisonment by the shogunate authority. He was considereed by many as Hokusai's greatest successor, despite not studying under him.<br/><br/> In his personal life, Kyosai was wild and undisciplined, abandoning formal tradition for greater freedom. He loved to drink and was very exuberant, lacking the dignity, power and reticence of Hokusai and some other renowned Japanese painters of the time.
James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) was the fifth President of the United States, serving between 1817 and 1825. Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States and the last president from the Virginian dynasty and the Republican Generation.<br/><br/> He gained experience as an executive as the Governor of Virginia and rose to national prominence as a diplomat in France, when he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. During the War of 1812, Monroe held the critical roles of Secretary of State and the Secretary of War under President James Madison.
Shunbaisai Hokuei (d. 1837), also known as Shunko III, was a designer of ukiyo-e style Japanese woodblock prints in Osaka, and was active from about 1824 to 1837. He was a student of Shunkosai Hokushu. Hokuei’s prints most often portray the kabuki actor Arashi Rikan II.
Kamehameha II is best remembered for the 'Ai Noa, the breaking of the ancient kapu (taboo) system of religious laws six months into his reign when he sat down with Kaʻahumanu and his mother Keopuolani and ate a meal together. What followed was the disbanding of the social class of priest and the destruction of temples and images.<br/><br/> In 1823, Kamehameha II and Kamamalu left the Sandwich Islands for London, arriving there in May 1824 for a state visit with King George IV. In London the royal party were fitted with the latest fashion and attended opera and ballet at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane.While in London, Kamamalu contracted measles and died on July 8. Six days later her grief-stricken husband also died of the measles.
Felix Bonfils (8 March 1831 – 1885) was a French photographer and writer who was active in the Middle East.<br/><br/> He was born in Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort and died in Ales. Felix worked as a bookbinder but in 1860 he joined General d'Hautpoul's expedition to the Levant. Soon after returning from Lebanon he became a photographer. The family moved to Beirut in 1867 where they opened a photographic studio called 'Maison Bonfils'.<br/><br/> Maison Bonfils produced thousands of photographs of the Middle East. They photographed posed scenes, dressed up in Middle Eastern regalia, and also stories from the Bible. Bonfils took photographs in Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Greece and Istanbul.
Katsushika Hokusai (October 31, 1760 – May 10, 1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Sanjūroku-kei, c. 1831) which includes the internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s.<br/><br/> Hokusai created the 'Thirty-Six Views' both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. It was this series, specifically The Great Wave print and Fuji in Clear Weather, that secured Hokusai’s fame both in Japan and overseas.
James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) was the fifth President of the United States, serving between 1817 and 1825. Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States and the last president from the Virginian dynasty and the Republican Generation.<br/><br/> He gained experience as an executive as the Governor of Virginia and rose to national prominence as a diplomat in France, when he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. During the War of 1812, Monroe held the critical roles of Secretary of State and the Secretary of War under President James Madison.
Hyakki Yagyo, variation: hyakki yako, (lit. 'Night Parade of One Hundred Demons') is a concept in Japanese folklore. It is a parade which is composed of a hundred kinds of <i>yokai</i> (supernatural monsters).<br/><br/> Legend has it that every year the yokai Nurarihyon, will lead all of the yokai through the streets of Japan during summer nights. Anyone who comes across the procession will perish or be spirited away by the yokai, unless protected by handwritten scrolls by anti-yokai onmyoji spellcasters.<br/><br/> According to the account in the Shugaisho, a medieval Japanese encyclopedia, the only way to be kept safe from the night parade if it comes by your house is to stay inside on the specific nights associated with the Chinese zodiac or to chant a magic spell.
Kamamalu Kalan Ku'ana-o-Kamehamalu Kekuaiwa-o-kalani Keali-Ho'opili-a-Walu (1802–1824) was Queen consort of the Kingdom of Hawaii as the wife of King Kamehameha II.<br/><br/> In 1823, Kamehameha II and Kamamalu left the Sandwich Islands for London, arriving there in May 1824 for a state visit with King George IV. In London the royal party were fitted with the latest fashion and attended opera and ballet at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. Many ladies of London sought the patterns of the turban that adorned her head. She attracted attention because she stood over six feet tall and was strikingly beautiful. She and her husband were the first Hawaiian monarchs to visit England.<br/><br/> While in London, Kamamalu contracted measles and died on July 8. Six days later her grief-stricken husband also died of the measles.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel (21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist.<br/><br/> Known for inventing dynamite, Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments. Nobel held 355 different patents, dynamite being the most famous.<br/><br/> After reading a premature obituary which condemned him for profiting from the sales of arms, he bequeathed his fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes. The synthetic element nobelium was named after him.
Katsushika Hokusai (October 31, 1760 – May 10, 1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series <i>Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji</i> (Fugaku Sanjūroku-kei, c. 1831) which includes the internationally recognized print, <i>The Great Wave off Kanagawa</i>, created during the 1820s.<br/><br/> Hokusai created the 'Thirty-Six Views' both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. It was this series, specifically The Great Wave print and Fuji in Clear Weather, that secured Hokusai’s fame both in Japan and overseas.
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.<br/><br/> Oiran (花魁) were the courtesans of Edo period Japan. The oiran were considered a type of yūjo (遊女) 'woman of pleasure' or prostitute. However, they were distinguished from the yūjo in that they were entertainers, and many became celebrities of their times outside the pleasure districts. Their art and fashions often set trends among the wealthy and, because of this, cultural aspects of oiran traditions continue to be preserved to this day.
The history of Algiers from 1815 to 1962 is bound to the larger history of Algeria and its relationship to France. On July 4, 1830, under the pretext of an affront to the French consul—whom the dey had hit with a fly-whisk when the consul said the French government was not prepared to pay its large outstanding debts to two Algerian merchants—a French army under General de Bourmont attacked the city in the 1830 invasion of Algiers. The city capitulated the following day. Algiers became the capital of French Algeria.<br/><br/> In 1962, after a bloody independence struggle in which hundreds of thousands (estimates range between 500,000 to 1,500,000) died (mostly Algerians but also French and Pieds-Noirs) at the hands of the French Army and the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale, Algeria finally gained its independence, with Algiers as its capital.
Mocha or Mokha (Arabic: المخا [al-Mukhā]) is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Until it was eclipsed in the 19th century by Aden and Hodeida, Mocha was the principal port for Yemen's capital Sana'a.<br/><br/> Mocha is famous for being the major marketplace for coffee from the 15th century until the 17th century. Even after other sources of coffee were found, Mocha beans (also called Sanani or Mocha Sanani beans, meaning from Sana'a) continued to be prized for their distinctive flavor—and remain so even today.<br/><br/> According to the Jesuit and traveler Jeronimo Lobo, who sailed the Red Sea in 1625, Mocha was 'formerly of limited reputation and trade' but since 'the Turkish assumption of power throughout Arabia, it has become the major city of the territory under Turkish domination, even though it is not the Pasha's place of residence, which is two days' journey inland in the city of Sana'a'. Lobo adds that its importance as a port was also due to the Ottoman law that required all ships entering the Red Sea to put in at Mocha and pay duty on their cargoes.<br/><br/> Passing through Mocha in 1752, Remedius Prutky found that it boasted a 'lodging-house of the Prophet Muhammad, which was like a huge tenement block laid out in many hundred separate cells where accommodation was rented to all strangers without discrimination of race or religion'. He also found a number of European ships in the harbor: three French, four English, two Dutch, and one Portuguese.<br/><br/> At present, Mocha is no longer utilized as a major trade route and the current local economy is largely based upon fishing and small amounts of tourism. The village of Mocha has been officially relocated 3 kilometers west along the Red Sea shore to accommodate the building and demolition of several coastal highways.
Old Kandahar (locally known as Zorr Shaar) was originally laid out by Alexander the Great in 330 BCE under the name Alexandria Arachosia. It served as the local seat of power for many rulers in the last 2,000 years, becoming part of many empires, including the Mauryans (322 BCE – 185 BCE), Indo-Scythians (200 BCE – 400 CE), Sassanids, Arabs, Zunbils, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Timurids, Mughals, Safavids, and others.
This print, by Kyōsai, depicts a variation of the Jigoku Dayu tale. One day, when the monk Ikkyū came to the brothel, he sat to enjoy a meal of fresh fish and sake, which are forbidden to Buddhist monks. Jigoku Dayu, with her sharp mind, assumed that this person was an imposter claiming to be the famous Ikkyū.<br/><br/> She summoned entertainment for him, and hid behind her screen to watch him. When she looked, she saw Ikkyū happily dancing along with skeletons, and knew that he was who he said he was.<br/><br/> This can be interpreted in a number of ways: Ikkyū is famous for reminding everyone of the inevitability of death with his skull-stick, and had commented often that under our skins which we so earnestly protect, is only a skeleton which will one day be all that is left of us.<br/><br/>
Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur (Arabic: الزبير رحمة منصور‎) was a Sudanese Arab slave trader in the late 19th-century. He later became a pasha and Sudanese governor.<br/><br/> His reputation as a nemesis of General Charles Gordon meant he was bestowed a near-mythic status in England, where he was referred to as 'the richest and worst', a 'Slaver King' 'who [had] chained lions as part of his escort'.
Frederick Townsend Ward was born in Salem, Massachusetts on November 29, 1831. Aside from working as a sailor during the 1850s, Ward found employment, as a 'filibuster'. 'Filibustering' is 'raising private mercenary armies and leading them into other countries to advance either [one's own] schemes or those of wealthy sponsors'.<br/><br/> According to a contemporary account written in early 1862, Ward and his brother arrived in Shanghai, China in 1860 for the purpose of trading, perhaps as an extension of their father's New York office.<br/><br/> Through their contacts with the Western business community, and Ward's own relentless self promotion, in the spring of 1860 Xu and Fang reached out to Ward and became his employers. Ward then began scouring the wharves of Shanghai for every Westerner, sober or otherwise, capable of firing a weapon. With this, the 'Shanghai Foreign Arms Corps' was born, which in defeat, would form the nucleus for the 'Ever Victorious Army'.<br/><br/> By March 1862, Ward's force would be officially named by the Qing government, and to history, as “The Ever Victorious Army', and Ward himself would be made first a 4th-rank, and then a 3rd-rank mandarin, high honors from the Manchu court for a Westerner.<br/><br/> By March 1862, Ward's force would be officially named by the Qing government, and to history, as 'The Ever Victorious Army”, and Ward himself would be made first a 4th-rank, and then a 3rd-rank mandarin, high honors from the Manchu court for a Barbarian.
The Bedouin (from the Arabic badawi, pl. badawiyyūn) are a part of the predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group. Specifically the term refers only to the 'camel-raising' tribes, but due to economic changes many are now settled or raising sheep. Also due to linguistic and cultural changes the term is now often applied in many ways either to Arabs in general or to desert dwellers or nomads. In Syria, the Bedouin live predominantly in the desert east and south of the country.
Kitagawa Utamaro (ca. 1753 - October 31, 1806) was a Japanese printmaker and painter, who is considered one of the greatest artists of woodblock prints (ukiyo-e). He is known especially for his masterfully composed studies of women, known as bijinga. He also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects.<br/><br/> After Utamaro's death, his pupil, Koikawa Shunchō, continued to produce prints in the style of his mentor and took over the gō, Utamaro, until 1820. These prints, produced during that fourteen-year-period as if Utamaro was the artist, now are referred to as the work of Utamaro II. After 1820 Koikawa Shunchō changed his gō to Kitagawa Tetsugorō, producing his subsequent work under that name.
Kitagawa Utamaro (ca. 1753 - October 31, 1806) was a Japanese printmaker and painter, who is considered one of the greatest artists of woodblock prints (ukiyo-e). He is known especially for his masterfully composed studies of women, known as bijinga. He also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects.<br/><br/> After Utamaro's death, his pupil, Koikawa Shunchō, continued to produce prints in the style of his mentor and took over the gō, Utamaro, until 1820. These prints, produced during that fourteen-year-period as if Utamaro was the artist, now are referred to as the work of Utamaro II. After 1820 Koikawa Shunchō changed his gō to Kitagawa Tetsugorō, producing his subsequent work under that name.
Hyakki Yakō ('Night Parade of One Hundred Demons') is a Japanese folk belief. The belief holds that every year yōkai, the Japanese supernatural beings, will take to the streets during summer nights. Anyone who comes across the procession will die, unless protected by some Buddhist sutra. It is a popular theme in Japanese visual art.
Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft). An active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji lies about 100 km southwest of Tokyo. Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone is a well-known symbol and icon of Japan and is frequently depicted in art and photographs. It is one of Japan's ‘Three Holy Mountains’ along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku.<br/><br/> Fuji is nowadays frequently visited by sightseers and climbers. It is thought that the first ascent was in 663 by an anonymous monk. The summit has been thought of as sacred since ancient times and was forbidden to women until the Meiji Era. Ancient samurai used the base of the mountain as a remote training area, near the present-day town of Gotemba.<br/><br/> Hokusai (1760-1849) was first and foremost a ‘ukiyo-e’ (floating world) painter of the Edo period. This painting is from his well-known series of woodblock prints titled, ‘36 Views of Mount Fuji’.<br/><br/> In this illustration, Hokusai’s signature appears in the cartouche at the top-left of the picture.
Jippensha Ikku was the pen name of Shigeta Sadakazu, a Japanese writer active during the late Edo period of Japan. He lived primarily in Edo (now known as Tokyo) in the service of samurai, but also spent some time in Osaka as a townsman. He was among the most prolific yellow-backed novel (kibyōshi) writers of the late Edo period — between 1795 and 1801 he wrote a minimum of twenty novels a year, and thereafter wrote sharebon, kokkeibon and over 360 illustrated stories (gōkan).<br/><br/> Jippensha was considered the Dickens of Japan. He began his adult life with three marriages of which two were quickly ended by fathers-in-law who could not understand his literary habits. He accepted poverty with good humor, and, having no furniture, hung his bare walls with paintings of the furniture he might have had. His masterpiece, Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige, was published in twelve parts between 1802 and 1822, and told a rollicking tale in the vein of 'The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'. It has been called 'the most humorous and entertaining book in the Japanese language'.
Jippensha Ikku was the pen name of Shigeta Sadakazu, a Japanese writer active during the late Edo period of Japan. He lived primarily in Edo (now known as Tokyo) in the service of samurai, but also spent some time in Osaka as a townsman. He was among the most prolific yellow-backed novel (kibyōshi) writers of the late Edo period — between 1795 and 1801 he wrote a minimum of twenty novels a year, and thereafter wrote sharebon, kokkeibon and over 360 illustrated stories (gōkan).<br/><br/> Jippensha was considered the Dickens of Japan. He began his adult life with three marriages of which two were quickly ended by fathers-in-law who could not understand his literary habits. He accepted poverty with good humor, and, having no furniture, hung his bare walls with paintings of the furniture he might have had. His masterpiece, Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige, was published in twelve parts between 1802 and 1822, and told a rollicking tale in the vein of 'The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'. It has been called 'the most humorous and entertaining book in the Japanese language'.
The Empress Dowager Ci'an (1837 - 8 April 1881), popularly known in China as the East Empress Dowager, officially known posthumously as the Xiaozhen Empress, was the second Empress Consort of the Xianfeng Emperor (1831 - 1861) of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China, and then Empress Dowager after 1861. Born the Lady Niuhuru, she was the daughter of Muyangga, an official from a powerful Manchu family, the Niuhuru clan. Her mother was Lady Giyang, of the Giyang clan.
The Xianfeng Emperor (17 July 1831– 22 August 1861), born Yizhu, was the eighth Emperor of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, and the seventh Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1850 to 1861.
The Empress Dowager Ci'an (1837 - 8 April 1881), popularly known in China as the East Empress Dowager, officially known posthumously as the Xiaozhen Empress, was the second Empress Consort of the Xianfeng Emperor (1831 - 1861) of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China, and then Empress Dowager after 1861. Born the Lady Niuhuru, she was the daughter of Muyangga, an official from a powerful Manchu family, the Niuhuru clan. Her mother was Lady Giyang, of the Giyang clan.
Nestorianism is a Christological doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431. Nestorius and his teachings were eventually condemned as heretical at the First Council of Ephesus in 431 and the Council of Chalcedon in 451, leading to the Nestorian Schism in which churches supporting Nestorius broke with the rest of the Christian Church. Afterward many of Nestorius' supporters relocated to Sassanid Persia, where they affiliated with the local Christian community, known as the Church of the East. Subsequently the Church of the East became increasingly Nestorian in doctrine, leading it to be known alternately as the Nestorian Church.
Map of the Qing Empire from an atlas first issued in 1824, with editions published annually to 1834. Each succeeding year new maps were added and others updated. This map is from the 1831 edition of Atlas Classica.
The Xianfeng Emperor (17 July 1831– 22 August 1861), born Yizhu, was the eighth Emperor of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, and the seventh Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1850 to 1861.
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. He won the popular vote for three presidential elections – in 1884, 1888, and 1892 – and was one of the three Democrats (with Andrew Johnson and Woodrow Wilson) to serve as president during the era of Republican political domination dating from 1861 to 1933.<br/><br/> He was also the first and only President in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office.
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography.<br/><br/> Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America, exploring and describing it for the first time from a modern scientific point of view. His description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. He was one of the first to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined (South America and Africa in particular).<br/><br/> Later, his five-volume work, Kosmos (1845), attempted to unify the various branches of scientific knowledge. Humboldt supported and worked with other scientists, including Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, Justus von Liebig, Louis Agassiz, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Georg von Neumayer, and most notably, Aimé Bonpland, with whom he conducted much of his scientific exploration.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859), was a leading British civil engineer, famed for his bridges and dockyards, and especially for the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of famous steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering.<br/><br/> Though Brunel's projects were not always successful, they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems. During his short career, Brunel achieved many engineering 'firsts', including assisting in the building of the first tunnel under a navigable river and the development of the SS Great Britain, the first propeller-driven ocean-going iron ship, which was at the time (1843) also the largest ship ever built.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859), was a leading British civil engineer, famed for his bridges and dockyards, and especially for the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of famous steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering.<br/><br/> Though Brunel's projects were not always successful, they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems. During his short career, Brunel achieved many engineering 'firsts', including assisting in the building of the first tunnel under a navigable river and the development of the SS Great Britain, the first propeller-driven ocean-going iron ship, which was at the time (1843) also the largest ship ever built.