Category Archives: Uncategorized

Spring – What Spring?

Posted on March 20, 2020 by

The spring 2020 exhibition at the Toshidama Gallery was meant to be about spring. The joy of new life; cherry blossom, budding trees, love, birth, renewal… alas,  how the world is plunged into fear and illness and despair. Life nevertheless … Continue reading →

Posted in Hirosada, Japanese prints, japanese woodblock prints, Kunichika, Kunisada, Osaka Prints, ukiyo-e, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Figures and Backgrounds in Ukiyo-e

Posted on February 7, 2020 by

Japanese woodblock prints liberate the figure from the ground by either dipensing with it altogether, or by embedding it like in marquetry, or by creating a series of flat cut outs arranged in shallow space – like the flats in a theatre. The figure can be turned into the complex system of signs and symbols that create narrative or else be involved in the complex visual game of ‘mitate’ where people and things stand for or make equivalence with other things… naturalism as known in the west is not part of the repetoire of ukiyo-e artists, their game was more complicated Continue reading →

Posted in Figure and Ground, Japanese prints, japanese woodblock prints, kabuki theatre, ukiyo-e art, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A Teahouse of the August Moon…

Posted on November 21, 2019 by

Well, not quite. I wanted to look at a new print at the Toshidama Gallery; a superb Yoshikazu image of a teahouse in Yokohama from 1861. It’s an outstanding image, it opens up an impossible series of spaces, bridges, walkways, … Continue reading →

Posted in Japanese prints, Sugoroku, ukiyo-e, Uncategorized, Yokohama, Yoshiwara | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sugoroku Magic – The Ghost of Seigen

Posted on July 12, 2019 by

The picture above is the first detail in our series taken from the stunning supernatural Sugoroku board showing at the Toshidama Gallery. It is a sort of compendium  of ghosts, magicians, magic creatures and so on. This is the ‘last … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian Art, Edo, Floating World, ghosts, japanese woodblock prints, Sugoroku, supernatural Japanese print, Toshidama Gallery., Uncategorized, Vintage Board Games | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Magical Sugoroku

Posted on July 4, 2019 by

A sugoroku board that is a a good compendium of Japanese magicians and supernatural stories. Continue reading →

Posted in ghosts, Kunichika, Magical, Sugoroku, supernatural Japanese print, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Collecting Japanese Woodblock Prints

Posted on June 23, 2019 by

Prints From the collection of Ruth Muschel and Gillies McKenna at Wolfson College, Oxford. We attended the opening of an exhibition of Japanese prints from the private collection of ukiyo-e belonging to Ruth Muschel and Gillies McKenna at Wolfson College, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art Collector, Floating World, Hiroshige, Japanese Art, Japanese prints, japanese woodblock prints, Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, ukiyo-e, ukiyo-e art, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

War; Regret and Loss

Posted on June 3, 2019 by

There’s been a great deal of media discussion about war in the UK press this week because it is the seventy-fifth anniversary of D-Day. War, conflict slaughter… sacrifice and duty, these are all common themes in Japanese prints. Martial events … Continue reading →

Posted in Asian Art, Japanese Art, Japanese Art Gallery, Japanese Poetry, Japanese prints, japanese woodblock prints, Kiyochika, Male Tragedy, Male Tragedy in Japanese Prints, Meiji Art, musha-e, senso-e, Sino-Japanese War, ukiyo-e, ukiyo-e art, Uncategorized, yoshitoshi | Tagged , | 1 Comment