Refine your search

The results of your search are listed below alongside the search terms you entered on the previous page. You can refine your search by amending any of the parameters in the form and resubmitting it.

Select all Deselect all Add selection to lightbox
Large Small
Thumbnails per page
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.
Utagawa Kunisada (also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III) was the most popular, prolific and financially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan.<br/><br/> In his own time, his reputation far exceeded that of his contemporaries, Hokusai, Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi.
Shunkōsai Hokushū, who is also known as Shunkō IV, was a designer of ukiyo-e style Japanese woodblock prints in Osaka who was active from about 1802 to 1832. He is known to have been a student of Shōkōsai Hambei, and may have also studied with Hokusai.<br/><br/> He used the name Shunkō until 1818, when he changed his name to 'Shunkōsai Hokushū'. He was the most important artist in Osaka during the 1810-20s and established the Osaka style of actor prints
Ukiyo-e, or ukiyo-ye ('pictures of the floating world'), is a genre of woodblock prints and paintings that flourished in Japan from the 17th through 19th centuries. It was aimed at the prosperous merchant class in the urbanizing Edo period (1603–1867). Amongst the popular themes were depictions of beautiful women; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica.<br/><br/> Edo (modern Tokyo) became the seat of government for the military dictatorship in the early 17th century. The merchant class at the bottom of the social order found themselves the greatest beneficiaries of the city's rapid economic growth. Many indulged in the entertainments of kabuki theatre, courtesans, and geisha of the pleasure districts. The term ukiyo ('floating world') came to describe this hedonistic lifestyle. Printed or painted 'ukiyo-e' images of this environment emerged in the late 17th century; they were popular with the merchant class, who had become wealthy enough to afford to decorate their homes with such works.
Utagawa Kunisada (also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III) was the most popular, prolific and financially successful designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints in 19th-century Japan.<br/><br/> In his own time, his reputation far exceeded that of his contemporaries, Hokusai, Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi.
Utagawa Toyokuni (1769 in Edo – 24 February 1825 in Edo), also often referred to as Toyokuni I to distinguish him from the members of his school who took over his gō (art-name) after he died, was a great master of ukiyo-e, known in particular for his kabuki actor prints.<br/><br/> He was the second head of the renowned Utagawa school of Japanese woodblock artists, and was the artist who really moved it to the position of great fame and power it occupied for the rest of the nineteenth century.
Toyohara Kunichika (30 June 1835 – 1 July 1900) was a Japanese woodblock print artist. Talented as a child, at about thirteen he became a student of Tokyo's then-leading print maker, Utagawa Kunisada. His deep appreciation and knowledge of kabuki drama led to his production primarily of ukiyo-e actor-prints, which are woodblock prints of kabuki actors and scenes from popular plays of the time.<br/><br/> A drinker and womanizer, Kunichika also portrayed women deemed beautiful (<i>bijinga</i>), contemporary social life, and a few landscapes and historical scenes. He worked successfully in the Edo period, and carried those traditions into the Meiji period. To his contemporaries and now to some modern art historians, this has been seen as a significant achievement during a transitional period of great social and political change in Japan's history.
Utagawa Toyokuni (1769 in Edo – 24 February 1825 in Edo), also often referred to as Toyokuni I to distinguish him from the members of his school who took over his gō (art-name) after he died, was a great master of ukiyo-e, known in particular for his kabuki actor prints.<br/><br/> He was the second head of the renowned Utagawa school of Japanese woodblock artists, and was the artist who really moved it to the position of great fame and power it occupied for the rest of the nineteenth century.
Japan: 'Actor Onoe Kikujiro II as Fusahachi's Wife Onui'. From the series 'The Book of the Eight Dog Heroes' by Utagawa Kunisada II (1823-1880), 1852. Utagawa Kunisada II was a Japanese <i>ukiyo-e</i> printmaker, one of three to take the name 'Utagawa Kunisada'.<br/><br/> Kunisada II is renowned for his prints. His favourite subjects were pleasure-houses and tea ceremonies. These themes are sometimes found together in some of his prints, as geishas usually acted as chaperones at tea-houses.
Utagawa Toyokuni (1769 in Edo – 24 February 1825 in Edo), also often referred to as Toyokuni I to distinguish him from the members of his school who took over his gō (art-name) after he died, was a great master of ukiyo-e, known in particular for his kabuki actor prints.<br/><br/> He was the second head of the renowned Utagawa school of Japanese woodblock artists, and was the artist who really moved it to the position of great fame and power it occupied for the rest of the nineteenth century.
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.
The revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin (四十七士 Shi-jū-shichi-shi), also known as the Forty-seven Samurai, the Akō vendetta, or the Genroku Akō incident (元禄赤穂事件 Genroku akō jiken) took place in Japan at the start of the 18th century. One noted Japanese scholar described the tale as the country's 'national legend'. It recounts the most famous case involving the samurai code of honor, bushidō.<br/><br/> The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (becoming ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) Asano Naganori was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka, whose title was Kōzuke no suke. The ronin avenged their master's honor after patiently waiting and planning for two years to kill Kira.<br/><br/> In turn, the ronin were themselves ordered to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder. With much embellishment, this true story was popularized in Japanese culture as emblematic of the loyalty, sacrifice, persistence, and honor that all good people should preserve in their daily lives. The popularity of the almost mythical tale was only enhanced by rapid modernization during the Meiji era of Japanese history, when it is suggested many people in Japan longed for a return to their cultural roots.<br/><br/> Fictionalized accounts of these events are known as Chūshingura. The story was popularized in numerous plays including bunraku and kabuki. Because of the censorship laws of the shogunate in the Genroku era, which forbade portrayal of current events, the names of the ronin were changed.<br/><br/>
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.