September 2012

Japanese Prints and Paintings of the Eighteenth Century

September 28—October 5, 2012

Japanese Prints and Paintings of the Eighteenth Century featured a select group of ukiyo-e paintings and prints depicting images of actors, courtesans, and entertainers of the era. Important paintings by Miyagawa Choshun (1683–1753) and Katsukawa Shunsho (1726–1792) have highlighted the exhibition.

Choshun’s Ryukyuan Dancers and Musicians depicts a performing Ryukyuan musical troupe. Once in the Baron Kawasaki Collection, this painting possibly records musicians who accompanied a delegation from the Ryukuan Islands to Edo in 1718. Yoshiwara Courtesans at the Kyoen Restaurant is a large early work by Shunsho who is considered by many to be the finest painter of ukiyo-e.

Included among the prints was the only extant impression of Shunsho’s portrait of the actor Ichikawa Yaozo II in the role of a yakko, one of the earliest examples of the okubi-e (bust portrait) format. 

Fine works by Suzuki Harunobu (1726–1770) and Torii Kiyonaga (1752–1815) were also featured in the exhibition.