The World's Largest Public Domain Media Search Engine
Tamausagi songokū, Taiso Yoshitoshi - Ukiyo e print

Similar

Tamausagi songokū, Taiso Yoshitoshi - Ukiyo e print

description

Summary

Print shows Son Goku, a monkey sometimes known as the Monkey King, holding a spiked sceptre and glaring at the Moon Rabbit, who apparently lives on the moon.
Title and other descriptive information compiled by Nichibunken-sponsored Edo print specialists in 2005-06.
From the series: Tsuki hyaku shi : 100 aspects of the moon.
Format: Vertical Oban Nishikie (trimmed).
Forms part of: Japanese prints and drawings (Library of Congress).
Yoshi-Toshi (Meiji?)

Woodblock printing in Japan (木版画, moku-hanga) is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603-1868). Woodblock printing appeared in Japan at the beginning of Edo period, when Tokugawa shogunate was ruled by th​e Japanese society. This technique originated from China, where it was used to print books for many centuries. Its original name is ‘moku-hanga’ and it has a wide usage in artistic genre of ‘ukiyo-e’. As opposed to western tradition, where artists used oil-based inks for woodcuts, moku-hanga technique uses water-based inks. That is why those prints had colors so vivid, as well as glazes, and transparency. This collection describes Japanese printmaking different schools and movements. The most notable of them were: - From 1700: Torii school - From 1700-1714: Kaigetsudō school - From 1720s: Katasukawa school, including the artists Shunsho and Shuntei - From 1725: Kawamata school including the artists Suzuki Harunobu and Koryusai - From 1786: Hokusai school, including the artists Hokusai, Hokuei and Gakutei - From 1794: Kitagawa school, including the artists Utamaro I, Kikumaro I and II - From 1842: Utagawa school, including the artists Kunisada and Hiroshige - From 1904: Sōsaku-hanga, "Creative Prints" movement - From 1915: Shin-hanga "New Prints" school, including Hasui Kawase and Hiroshi Yoshida Woodblock prints were provided by the Library of Congress and cover the period from 1600 to 1980.

During the Edo period (1603-1868), ukiyo-e (浮世絵/"floating world pictures"), woodblock cuts exploded in popularity across Japan. Throughout the Edo period, the moon remained a very popular subject for ukiyo-e art. Scenes of nightlife in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and Kyoto and prints depicting a gigantic moon (or 'ukiyo-e moon') floating over houses, temples, and Japanese landmarks were hugely popular. The Rimpa school was known for its half-moons, which adorned many of their paintings. Perhaps the most famous series with the ukiyo-e moon as a theme is Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon" series. Most sets of the series published in 1885 underneath a full moon. "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon" was one of the last of the great ukiyo-e series to be published.

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (Japanese: 月岡 芳年; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi 大蘇 芳年; 30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) is widely recognized as the last great master of the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock printing and painting. He is also regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing.

Hey diddle diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed to see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon. /A nursery rhyme from the 1700's /

date_range

Date

01/01/1885
person

Contributors

Taiso, Yoshitoshi, 1839-1892, artist
place

Location

create

Source

Library of Congress
copyright

Copyright info

No known restrictions on publication.

Explore more

monkeys
monkeys