San Antonio College Library

"Fascination with color woodblock prints, a typical Japanese art form remains undiminished until today. During its heyday around 1800, numerous captivating portrayals of women were created. Presented here are one hundred masterpieces from the most well known woodblock artists in Japan, supplemented by illuminating texts."--Page 4 of cover.

Yoshitoshi's artistic career traces a period of social and political change in Japan, which opened its doors to trade with the West in 1853, the year that he published his first woodblock print. As tumult shook the foundations of old Japan, Yoshitoshi cleaved to tradition in his choice of subject matter, drawing upon literature, history, and mythology, the warrior class, and the Buddhist notion of "the floating world" to preserve and celebrate Japanese...

This straightforwardly written and highly informative book is designed to serve as an introduction to Japanese prints for the student and the beginning collector. It is both a history and a guide. While the paintings and illustrated books of the printmakers are mentioned only in passing, the account of the Japanese print is not limited to the history of ukiyo-e but includes a discussion of the Buddhist prints of the medieval period and the prints...

"Ukiyoye means pictures of the floating or passing world; the school of Japanese popular color prints known by this name flourished in thousands of prints by hundreds of artists over a relatively brief period c. 1760-1825. Since then the prints, originally considered vulgar and sold for pennies on the streets, have gained fame as the medium of Hokusai, Hiroshige and others, whose glimpses of Japanese life in landscape and theatrical scenes have influenced...

"Journey along the famed Tokaido Road-an ancient thoroughfare with a modern twist. The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido is the best-known work of the great 19th century Japanese woodblock artist Utagawa Hiroshige. The series of 53 masterful woodblock prints depicts stops along the ancient Tokaido Road-which, from the eleventh to the nineteenth century, was the main thoroughfare between Tokyo and Kyoto. Though the road itself is now submerged under...