FEBRUARY 2009

February 01, 2009

Sebastian Izzard's published book The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido (New York: George Braziller, 2008), reproduced the finest surviving set of this series of prints by the Ukiyo-e School painters Utagawa Hiroshige and Keisai Eisen. In his introduction, Dr. Izzard provides a history of the Kisokaido, one of the main highways linking Edo and Kyoto, along with brief biographies of Hiroshige and Eisen, and an account of the publication of the set. He then examines each of the seventy images comprising the series, offering new insights into the artists' creative processes and the gradual evolution of the series within the context of the social and economic milieus of 19th century Japan.

The exhibition The Genius of Shibata Zeshin: Japanese Masterworks from the Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection, has completed its American tour of museums in San Antonio, Minneapolis, and New York. Comprising various storage boxes, inro, trays, and paintings, the show was the first to explore Zeshin's technical and artistic virtuosity in the lacquer medium. A scholarly catalogue authored by Sebastian Izzard, who acted as advisor to the Edsons as they formed their collection, accompanied the exhibition. The Edson Collection traveled to Japan in 2009 where it was shown alongside masterpieces from the Tokyo National Museum and other national institutions.

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