Night Scene of Street Stall (Yomise), 1949

Color woodblock print

11 5/16 x 15 7/16 inches (28.7 X 39.2 cm) 

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of
Warren H. and Mary I. Watanabe, 2001

2001-138-49

In his prolific career as a printmaker, Asano Takeji often depicted famous landscapes in the softened hues of evening. Night Scene of Street Stall stands out amongst the artist’s nocturnal landscapes of distant views. This print places the viewer at the heart of one of Occupied Japan’s congested black markets. The artificial light beaming from the vendor’s stalls illuminates the downcast eyes and mute faces of a somber crowd. The haggard figures convey the weight of the times, suggesting the economic hardship and difficulty of the postwar era in which this print was made.

Anna Moblard Meier

Mount Aso, ca. 1954

Color woodblock print

11 3/4 x 16 3/4 inches (29.8 x 42.5 cm) 

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Theodore T. Newbold, 1959

1959-16-1

The abrupt form of the active volcano Mount Aso in the landscape is manifested in the sculptured angular shapes of this print. Azechi developed a passion for climbing while sketching sceneries en plein air and designed his mountains with the zeal of a conqueror of such a monument of nature. His artistic style also testifies to his deep respect and fascination with the subject of mountains. Though the artist chooses a somewhat somber palette, the scene communicates a sense of majesty rather than that of loneliness.

Daria Melnikova

Peak of Autumn (Seishū), 1966

Color woodblock print

26 13/16 x 20 7/16 inches (68.1 x 51.9 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Felix Juda, 1967

1967-115-5

In this print Hashimoto renders a vibrant view of autumn foliage at its peak as though seen from a wooden verandah playfully manipulating the scene’s perspectival logic. This striking visual composition, coupled with the print’s graphic, bold colors, evokes the insistent ephemerality of the seasons. Trained in Western-style oil painting, Hashimoto also studied woodblock printing with Hiratsuka Un’ichi, whose work is also present in the gallery. This print demonstrates his bold aesthetic, interweaving both Western and Japanese traditions, without privileging East or West, tradition or modernity.

Kimberly Schreiber

The Garden with Stepping Stones
(Tobiishi no aru niwa), 1959

Color woodblock print

23 3/8 x 18 3/16 inches (59.4 x 46.2 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of the Felix and Helen Juda Foundation, 1961

1961-56-2

Here Hashimoto depicts the karesansui or “dry landscape garden.” A highly calculated and fastidiously maintained natural world in miniature, the Zen rock garden is designed to encourage quiet meditation and contemplation. Hashimoto renders the scene’s textures and lines according to the constraints of a two-dimensional surface, flattening the view by abandoning a single vanishing point and embracing the formal and aesthetic limitations of printmaking.

Kimberly Schreiber

The Hot Springs at Izu, Yugano
(Izu Yugano onsen), c. 1930

Color woodblock print

11 1/4 x 10 inches (28.6 x 25.4 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of
Warren H. and Mary I. Watanabe, 2001

2001-138-19

In Kawabata Yasunari’s (1899-1972) short story “The Dancing Girl of Izu,” a young man stays at the Yugano inn during his travels. Kawabata’s tale, one of the most popular ever written by the 1968 Nobel Laureate, was published in 1926 just a few years before Hiratsuka made this woodcut. Here the artist depicts a traveler washing his feet in the Kawazu River prior to entering the famous inn. The figure’s food basket and sandals await him on the shore. Yugano lies on the Izu Peninsula, southwest of Tokyo, where geothermal activity produces numerous hot springs. Inns around such natural spas became popular destinations, and the one at Yugano was especially beloved thanks to its association with Kawabata’s story.

Katelynn Hobbs

Night View of a Ginza Store
(Ginza shōten yakei), 1882

Color woodblock print

9 3/4 x 14 3/16 inches (24.8 x 36 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of
Warren H. and Mary I. Watanabe, 2001

2011-138-17

Known for his cityscapes, the artist Inoue Yasuji depicted this view of a store in the Ginza district of Tokyo shown at night. During the 1870s, the Ginza area was rebuilt as an economic center with Western-style brick buildings and wide, gas-lit streets and sidewalks. Images such as this one expressed contemporary excitement about the possibility of the modern city. The shop filled with domestically produced goods evokes a sense of prosperity, and its glass bottles lining the shelves refer to the period expansion of glass production, considered another marker of progress.

Harrison Schley

Sea—Evening Calm, 1964

Color woodblock print

29 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches (74.3 x 56.5 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Albert J. Caplan, 1964  

1964-190-1

Iwami’s woodblock prints are characterized by the artist’s use of thick, velvety inks, embossed surfaces, and the natural grain of un-hewn blocks of driftwood. Her bold yet simple compositions create a quiet intensity that demands the viewer’s attention.  In Sea—Evening Calm Iwami juxtaposes motion and stillness, specificity and abstraction; the image evokes a sense of primordial nature in the visual language of landscape to captivate the viewer’s eye. Although this work does not depict a specific place, the image nevertheless reminds one of the wide-open spaces of the natural world, like the expanse of the open sea.

Anna Moblard Meier

Spring Night, Ginza (Haru no yoru, Ginza), 1934
(printed between 1946-1957)

Color woodblock print

15 3/16 x 10 5/16 inches (38.6 x 26.2 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of
Warren H. and Mary I. Watanabe, 2001  

2001-138-18

Kasamatsu Shirō’s print presents a spring night in the Ginza district in 1930s Tokyo. Depicting its high-rise buildings and clientele wearing Western-style clothing, Kasamatsu captured the neighborhood’s modern atmosphere. The large sign at the center reads “Azuma Odori,” advertising the traditional geisha dance being performed nearby. At the same time, the artist lends the scene a poetic air, setting it against the blue night sky, with budding willow trees beside a quiet sushi stall.

Haeyoon Chang

The Sazai Hall of the Temple of the Five
Hundred Arhats (Gohyaku Rakanji Sazaidō), from
the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei), ca. 1830-31

Color woodblock print

9 3/4 x 14 13/16 inches (24.8 x 37.6 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White Collection, 1967

1967-30-181

The Sazai Hall or “Turbo Hall,” so named because its spiral stairway reminded people of the twisting-shape of a shell, of Rakanji Temple was a popular tourist spot in the city of Edo. The unusual three-story building offered unparalleled views from its top. In Hokusai’s print, visitors dressed in summer kimono gaze at the distant Mount Fuji while enjoying the cool breezes such height affords, a rare respite from the oppressive summer heat of the city.

Quintana Heathman

Tago Bay near Ejiri on the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō Ejiri Tago no ura ryakuzu), from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei), ca. 1830-31

Color woodblock print

10 1/16 x 14 3/4 inches (25.6 x 37.5 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White Collection, 1967

1967-30-179

In Hokusai’s most famous series, Mount Fuji is the starting point for imaginative compositions and endless variations on a theme. Beneath the famed peak, fishermen pull their nets from Tago Bay, a celebrated famous place associated with Mount Fuji’s snow-covered peak since the eighth century.
The image of the mountain dappled with snow, a frequent image in Japanese poetry and painting, is connected visually to mundane contemporary life, its sloping shape echoed in the forms of the fishing boats.

Quintana Heathman

The Stone Garden (Sekitei), 1959

Color woodblock print

18 x 23 inches (45.7 x 58.4 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Albert J. Caplan, 1959  

1959-144-2

The bold colors used in this print to represent the stone garden at Ryōanji Temple in Kyoto typify the works of Kawanishi. Thought to be one of Japan’s earliest rock gardens, the site is considered a historic landmark and counted among Japan’s most beautiful places. The scattered rocks in a bed of raked sand are often interpreted as a seascape of islands in the ocean. Here, Kawanishi uses embossing to express the texture of the sand.

Harrison Schley

The Water Lily Season (Suiren no koro), 1959

Color woodblock print

18 x 22 13/16 inches (45.7 x 57.9 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Albert J. Caplan, 1959  

1959-144-1

Kawanishi’s use of saturated, unmodulated colors and a lack of black contour lines are features of his distinctive style. In this unusual representation of a scene of water  lilies, Kawanishi juxtaposes the hues and forms of the the black water, yellow leaves, white tree trunks, and blue grass, thus reversing our expectation of the natural colors of these elements. Deliberately abstract, the combination of these colored blocks produces a sense of darkness, tension, and mystery.

Jenny Lu

The Great Buddha at Kamakura
(Kamakura Daibutsu), 1930

Color woodblock print

15 1/2 x 10 3/8 inches (39.4 x 26.4 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of
Mrs. Staunton B. Peck, 1965

1965-50-16

Hasui’s print depicts the famous Great Buddha located in Kamakura. This sculptural representation of the meditating Amida Buddha, the Buddha of the Pure Land, was cast in bronze in the year 1252 upon the request of the shogun Minamoto Yorimoto. A family of three pays their respects to the Buddha, their small size and quiet poses accentuating the tranquility and meditative quality of the scene. The Kamakura Great Buddha attracted foreign travelers as early as the 1880s, when it was included in guidebooks for tourists. On a visit with the historian Henry Adams to the site, artist John LaFarge photographed and drew the Great Buddha in 1886.

Lynn Lees

Hataori, Shiobara (Shiobara Hataori), 1946

Color woodblock print

Private Collection

Hasui trained as a painter, studying both watercolor and oil painting techniques, and he adapted those techniques for his print designs. This print, like all others by Hasui in this exhibition, was produced by Watanabe Shōzaburō, the leading publisher of the Shin hanga, or New Print, movement. Here, Hasui has depicted a snowstorm in a small town. It is late at night. Snow on the rooftops reflects the light, with the presence of people suggested by the illuminated windows. Hasui’s impressionistic rendering suggests the obscured vision of a storm watcher.

Ying Pan

Plum Orchard, 1943

Color woodblock print

9 15/16 x 12 1/16 inches (25.2 x 30.6 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Theodore T. Newbold, 1959  

1959-16-2

This print illustrates Yoshino Baigō, a plum-viewing site located in Ome city on the Tamagawa River on the outskirts of greater metropolitan Tokyo. Home to one of the largest annual plum blossom festivals in the country, Yoshino Baigō is a major sightseeing destination. Maekawa Senpan, a Sōsaku hanga artist, was fond of representing traditional and folk scenes. This print is among many images he made that replicated long-appreciated customs in a time of ongoing modernization.

Petya Andreeva

Boston, before 1974

Woodblock print

9 3/8 x 9 1/2 inches (23.8 x 24.1cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the Print Revolving Fund, 1973

1973-204-3

Contemporary print artist Matsubara admired Munakata Shikō, also featured in this exhibition. Like Munakata, Matsubara is interested in the expressive potential of the medium. Much of her work demonstrates a fascination for religious places and the social contexts that surround them. While living in Boston as a student, Matsubara became fascinated with the city.  Here she depicts the Old South Church in Copley Square in the early morning.  Matsubara is also well known for her illustrated books, often working with her novelist sister, Matsubara Hisako.

Drew Hasson

Untitled (Festival), 1962

Color stencil and woodblock print

15 x 19 inches (38.1 x 48.3 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Benjamin D. Bernstein, 1970

1970-224-18

This print is a remarkable and abstract combination of the aesthetics of Japanese folk art and textile dyeing techniques. Rather than depicting an actual scene of a Shintō festival, the artist uses earthy and bright colors to convey the atmosphere of such a religious holiday. The textured paper reinforces the sense of joy and celebration. Employing stencils from dyeing methods along with woodblock visually transforms the print into a fragment of a dyed silk kimono.

Daria Melnikova

Mountain Fires (Yamabi), from the series Roaming Far from Home (Ryūrishō hanga saku), 1955

Hand-colored woodblock print

16 1/2 x 13 3/4 inches (41.9 x 34.9)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the George W.B. Taylor Fund, 1958  

1958-104-4

Known for his dynamic and rough-hewn depictions of poetry, myths, icons, and landscapes, Munakata was passionate about the medium of woodblock printing and consistently expressed the idea that art was not about appearance but essence. In his view the expressive potential of a print was inseparable from the hand of the artist, the act of carving, and the materiality of the wood from which it was made. In Mountain Fires Munakata characteristically combines poetry with an abstracted, colorful landscape, quoting a tanka poem by Yoshii Isamu (1886-1960) that may be translated as:

Look also to Izu

And to its mountain fires

So rarely seen

Izu, so dearly missed—

So, too, my beloved.

Anna Moblard Meier

Fuji, 1966

Color collograph

22 7/16 x 16 15/16 inches (57 x 43 cm) 

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Albert J. Caplan, 1969

1969-59-4

This print of an abstracted Mount Fuji stands out as a thoroughly modern representation of a traditional “famous place.” A painter, engraver, muralist, and printmaker from Kobe, Nakayama took on the French name François after studying copperplate engraving in France in 1924. This print is made using the collograph technique, where the artist adheres a collage of various materials to a block to produce a varied surface. The block is then inked and printed onto paper, creating deep relief and varied textures.

Megan Czerwinski

Heian Shrine, 1961

Color woodblock print

26 x 33 5/8 inches (66 x 85.4 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Felix Juda, 1961  

1961-83-1

The strong horizontal and vertical bands that anchor
the composition of this print suggest the forms of the crossbeams and pillars of a building at Heian Shrine (Heian Jingū). The red background refers to the colors of the pillars at the shrine, while the black form in the foreground represents a decorative post cover. Reduced to these abstract architectural elements, this print captures our attention in its pure, quiet visual language, evoking a kind of meditative memory of the shrine for its viewers.

Jenny Lu

Viewing Mount Daimonji from Nijō Bridge (Nijōbashi kara Daimonji o nozomu), from the series Famous Places of Kyoto (Kyōraku meisho), 1930

Color woodblock print

9 13/16 x 15 3/8 inches (24.9 x 39.1 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of
Warren H. and Mary I. Watanabe, 2001

2001-138-42

Nomura Yoshimitsu belonged to a circle of Shin hanga or “New Print” artists active in Kyoto.  Born into a family of Ukiyo-e artists, Yoshimitsu also studied European painting, and his prints are characterized by his adaptations of both sources. Here Yoshimitsu depicts the annual closing ceremony of the Obon festival, one of the most famous events in Kyoto, when five bonfires creating Chinese characters are lit to accompany the deceased to the afterlife. The modern city is represented here by the costumes of the festival-goers, the flavored ice-seller’s cart, and the electrical poles visible in the background of the print.

Drew Hasson

Hill of Nagasaki, 1964

Color woodblock print

19 1/16 x 25 9/16 inches (48.4 x 64.9 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Felix M. Juda, 1965  

1965-106-3

Ono Tadashige is represented in this exhibition twice, in prints showing famous views both within and beyond Japan. Here, he represents the city of Nagasaki, with its distinctive cathedral spires. Ono devised his own printing technique called inkoku tashoku-zuri mokuhan or “color negative woodblock prints.” This process reverses the traditional method by printing black ink first, then printing colors on top using white gouache, which accounts for his prints’ distinctive visual effects. Here, he represents the city of Nagasaki, showing the spires of the Urakami Cathedral. The cathedral's distinctive profile served as the landmark for the dropping of the atomic bomb on August 9, 1945. The cathedral was rebuilt on the same site in 1959.

Travis Mager

Shore of the Black Sea (Kokkai no kishi), 1961

Color woodblock print

12 9/16 x 18 1/2 inches (31.9 x 47 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of the
Felix and Helen Juda Foundation, 1962

1962-122-1

Ono Tadashige is well known for his depictions of Japanese life highlighting the struggles of the working class. Yet Ono also produced many images of foreign famous places, including scenes from Paris, Amsterdam, Pompeii, and Moscow, which he would have seen in his travels abroad in 1961. This scene of the shore of the Black Sea evokes his experience of the site. Ono is often overlooked in histories of the Sōsaku hanga movement, in spite of having had a successful and prolific career, perhaps due to his unusual technique.

Travis Mager

Jyoko-ji Kamino-yama (Jōkōji Kaminoyama), 1962

Color woodblock print

27 3/8 x 17 11/16 inches (69.5 x 44.9 cm) 

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Benjamin D. Bernstein, 1970  

1970-244-18

Here, Saitō depicts a stone path leading to a small temple surrounded by a garden. The strong contrast between the green and black colors creates a vivid impression of seeing through the gate into the distant garden. The artist plays with the viewer’s understanding of space with the bold geometric shapes of the stone path and the wide façade of the temple gate. The tension between the abstracted forms and this sense of recession draws us closer while simultaneously keeping the temple out of reach.

Olivia Pei

Signal (B), 1962

Color woodblock print

18 7/8 x 24 3/8 inches (47.9 x 61.9 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1964  

1964-22-6

In Signal (B), Saitō gives us a sense of the landscape of industrialized Japan through the use of stark geometric shapes and subdued colors. The gray speckled ground, silhouetted cityscape, metal structure in the foreground, and red stoplight would all have been printed using separate woodblocks applied sequentially to the paper. The scene may depict the hush after the departure of the last train of the night at 1 a.m. and the resumption of train
service around 5 a.m.

Katelyn Hobbs

Stone Garden Kyoto [Ryōanji], 1955

Color woodblock print

17 1/2 x 23 3/8 inches (44.5 x 59.4 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Print Club of Philadelphia Permanent Collection, 1959

1959-51-28

Saitō represents the famous stone garden of Ryōanji as an abstracted form, reducing nature into the two elements of geometric shapes and pure white sand. Here, the viewer looks out at the garden from the inside of the temple’s living quarters. The massive wooden verandah is boldly represented with a wide portion of the color black which occupies more than a half of the image. The horizon line makes an effective contrast to the white sand in the sun.

Olivia Pei

Bronx Project, 1991

Color offset lithograph

21 3/4 x 30 inches (55.2 x 76.2 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of the Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia, in memory of Anne d’Harnoncourt, 2009

2009-61-75

In this lithograph Sasaki portrays a large ship protruding from an abandoned apartment building. Sasaki based this artwork on his experience after moving to New York to study art and architecture in 1974. The city’s boroughs were suffering economically and the artist witnessed numerous empty houses and abandoned properties left behind in collapsed communities. The solitude and loneliness he observed in the Bronx corresponded with his own feelings of emptiness and alienation as a foreigner abroad.

Haeyoon Chang

Hara: Roof-tile Reflections of Mount Fuji, No. 14 from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi), 1964

Color woodblock print

15 3/4 x 20 5/8 inches (40 x 52.4 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Benjamin D. Bernstein, 1970

1970-244-21

Sekino represents the inverse reflection of Mount Fuji on a tiled roof. One of the most popular sites in Japanese landscape prints, Mount Fuji is frequently depicted reflected in one of the five lakes nearby. Here, Sekino’s undulating roof tiles seem a likely visual pun on waves. The print also refers to Utagawa Hiroshige’s 1830s series The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, updating one of the sites along the Tōkaidō Road connecting Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Kyoto. Viewed at close proximity, the wave pattern and variations in color of the roof tiles become abstract forms. Moving further away, the imagery comes into sharper focus and takes on an almost photographic quality.

Harrison Schley

Kameyama: Samurai Mansion, No. 47 from the series, Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi), 1964

Color woodblock print

16 7/8 x 21 1/2 inches (42.9 x 54.6 cm) 

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of
Warren H. and Mary I. Watanabe, 2001

2001-138-23

One of the leaders of the Sōsaku hanga, or Creative Print movement, Sekino preferred abstract components that exploited the special possibilities inherent in wood. This print is the forty-seventh composition in the series, Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō Road, and served as an homage to the subject’s previous treatment by such Edo-period masters as Hokusai and Hiroshige (also exhibited in this gallery). Here, Sekino uses sharp, clean lines and simplified forms to modernize his subject matter.

Yae-jin Ha

Kyoto Growing Dark (Kururu Kyō), 1969

Color woodblock print

36 13/16 x 25 inches (93.5 x 63.5 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the Print Revolving Fund, 1969

1969-188-4

From a high vantage point above the roof tiles, the
viewer takes in Kyoto’s distinctive architectural landscape as portrayed here by Sekino, a member of the Sōsaku hanga or Creative Print movement. This 1969 print titled Kyoto Growing Dark is visually inviting with its abstract composition of plunging diagonals and intersecting planes. The combination of the title and the delicate slivers of light spilling onto the street conveys an atmosphere that is simultaneously intimate and yet mysterious.

Lin Zheng

Ginkgo Tree in Koshihata

(Koshihata no ginan), 2004

Color etching

11 1/4 x 7 5/8 inches (28.6 x 19.4 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Robin Austin in honor of Gary Wescott, 2012

2012-64-1

A massive ginkgo tree’s vibrant yellow-gold leaves fill the background of this autumn scene, nearly eclipsing the sturdy farmhouse and small pine tree below. The vertical orientation of the print and the sharp, low-point perspective heighten the ginkgo tree’s presence and call attention to the decaying, brown leaves on the ground. Tanaka Ryōhei participates in the long tradition of Japanese artists celebrating the beauty and brevity of the seasons. Here, the gingko tree inventively functions as a seasonal marker for autumn and gives the composition a brilliant gold background.

Kendra Grimmett

Jingoji, 1972

Etching

13 1/8 x 20 3/8 inches (33.3 x 51.8 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Ann E. and
Donald W. McPhail, 2012

2012-25-71

Jingoji, a Shingon Buddhist temple in the mountainous region northwest of Kyoto, awaits its visitors at the top of a stone staircase. Viewers of this etching are transported to a place known for its brilliant autumnal colors. Yet, rather than add red, yellow, and green to his monochromatic design, Tanaka employs texture to suggest diverse foliage. The leaves that frame Jingoji are dark, linear dashes; lighter, rounded loops; and medium-toned patches of cross-hatching.

Kendra Grimmett

View of Uji Bridge, Ise (Ise, Ujibashi no zu), from the series Sacred, Historic, and Scenic Places (Seichi shiseki meishō), 1941

Color woodblock print

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Kiyomizudera, Kyoto (Kyoto, Kiyomizudera), from
the series Sacred, Historic, and Scenic Places (Seichi shiseki meishō), 1941

Color woodblock print

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Meiji Shrine (Meiji jingū), from the series Sacred, Historic, and Scenic Places (Seichi shiseki meishō), 1941

Color woodblock print

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

View of Ten Thousand Lanterns at Kasuga Shrine, Nara (Nara, Kasuga jingū mantōrō zu), from the series Sacred, Historic, and Scenic Places (Seichi shiseki meishō), 1941

Color woodblock print

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

During World War II printmaking continued despite wartime hardships, and many artists took up the subject of the war either directly or indirectly. Tokuriki’s series presents the Japanese landscape through the lens of wartime patriotism, emphasizing locales with imperial, religious, and political importance. Locations such as Ise Shrine, historically connected to the imperial family, and Meiji Shrine, dedicated to the Meiji emperor, convey a sense of national pride.
Other prints celebrate traditional famous places such as Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto and Kasuga Shrine in Nara. The prints exude a quiet dignity in alignment with government wartime values.

Quintana Heathman

Kinyrūzan Temple, Asakusa (Asakusa Kinryūzan),
No. 99 from the series One Hundred Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei), 1856

Color woodblock print

13 15/16 x 9 1/8 inches (35.4 x 23.2 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Mr. and Mrs. Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1959

1959-93-6

Made to celebrate and commemorate his native city of Edo, Hiroshige depicted Kinyrūzan Temple (also known as Sensōji) at the start of the winter season. Dedicated to the bodhisattva of mercy, Kannon, the temple was established in 628 and is considered to be one of the most esteemed Buddhist temples of its age. Hiroshige’s exaggerated use of linear perspective shows visitors marching into the temple clutching snow-laden umbrellas. The viewer’s eye is drawn to the lantern hanging from a gate at the top right of the print; the composition emphasizes the starkness of winter in juxtaposition with the vibrant red of the temple.

Rissa Papillion

Maisaka: Ferryboats on the Sea at Imagiri (Maisaka Imagiri kaijō funewatashi), No. 31 from the series Famous Sites of the Fifty-three Stations (Gojūsan tsugi meisho zue), 1855

Color woodblock print

14 5/8 x 10 inches (37.1 x 25.4 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White Collection, 1967

1967-30-160

Hiroshige’s images of the Tōkaidō Road, as in this depiction of the ferryboats at Maisaka, were some of the most popular landscapes of the nineteenth century. Though some could travel the highway in person, many more could purchase Hiroshige’s prints, enjoying the sights of the journey from the comfort of their own homes. These landscapes of the Edo period would remain a source of inspiration for later printmakers, as may be seen in examples elsewhere in the gallery.

Quintana Heathman

The Sixty-odd Provinces of Japan, a Catalogue
of Famous Sites Shown at a Single Glance and Divided into a Game Board (Dai Nihon rokujū yoshū, meisho ichiran furiwake sugoroku), 1856

Color woodblock print

28 x 27 7/16 inches (71.1x 69.7 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Dr. and Mrs. Robert D. Dripps, 1972

1972-137-1

Print technology was used during the Edo period for a wide variety of paper products, including game boards like the one shown here. This game allows the player to virtually travel through the sixty-eight provinces of Japan between the city of Edo, the shogun’s capital, and the imperial capital of Kyoto. The board game, designed by Hiroshige II, is based on the series Famous Places in the Sixty-odd Provinces of Japan by Hiroshige I, and was published in the 10th month of 1856, at the end of the three-year production of that series. Hiroshige I’s series was immensely popular, providing viewers with meisho from every single province, unusual for Ukiyo-e landscape prints which more often selected only well-known locales. The production of game boards such as this one indicate the popularity of famous places and travel amongst the print-buying public of the late Edo period.

Quintana Heathman

True View of the Harbor at Yokohama near Kanagawa (Kanagawa Yokohama minato shinkei) and Picture of the Waterfront at Yokohama (Yokohama kaigan zue), 1860

Color woodblock print

14 1/2 x 60 inches (36.8 x 152.4 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Eli Kirk Price, 1950  

1950-70-1(28-33)

In 1858 Yokohama, a fishing village near Edo (present-day Tokyo), was established as a port and trading station for five nations: France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, and the United States. By the end of the nineteenth century, Yokohama was a major port and entryway for Westerners into Japan. This 1860 print spanning six sheets shows a panoramic view of the city and harbor. Along the right, a steady stream of Japanese travelers are making their way to and from the city, while on the left, the harbor is filled with ships bringing goods to Japan. Hiroshige II invites the viewer to imagine looking at this scene through a telescope, just like the woman at the lower left, and frames the scene with golden clouds along the borders, a trope common in traditional Japanese paintings.

Harrison Schley

El Capitan, Yosemite Valley (Yosemittodani Eru Kyapitan), from the series The United States, 1925

Color woodblock print

16 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches (41.9 x 27.3 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of
Althea de B. Budd, 1973

1973-202-39

Initially trained in Western-style painting, Yoshida Hiroshi began making woodblock prints in 1920 with Watanabe Shōzaburō, the influential publisher of the Shin hanga or New Print movement in the early twentieth century. In 1925 Hiroshi started his own printmaking studio, publishing his first set of “self-made” prints showing famous places in the United States he had sketched while on a visit. These included Mount Rainier, Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite, shown here, among others.

Eileen Gao

Morning at Mount Tsurugi (Tsurugizan no asa), from the series Twelve Prints of the Japan Alps (Nihon Arupusu jūni dai no uchi), 1926

Color woodblock print

15 5/8 x 10 3/4 inches (39.7 x 27.3 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White Collection, 1967

1967-30-216

This scene of Mount Tsurugi comes directly from Yoshida Hiroshi’s experience in the Japanese Alps. Yoshida would sketch scenes during his summertime mountain-climbing excursions and make prints from these sketches during the fall and winter months. This print demonstrates his interest in showing the European notion of the sublime, seen in the grand qualities with which Hiroshi has imbued the landscape: architectural clouds, monumentalized nature, and saturated colors that blend seamlessly together.

Travis Mager

Autumn in Hakone Museum (Hakone Shinsenkyō Nikkōden no oniwa), 1954

Color woodblock print

Private Collection

Yoshida Tōshi depicted many different types of landscapes, finding inspiration in exotic foreign places as well as traditional Japanese landmarks. Situated on the banks of Lake Ashi, Hakone is a popular destination for its beautiful views of Mount Fuji and numerous hot springs. The Hakone Museum of Art was founded in 1952 by Okada Mokichi (1882-1955) with the goal of preserving and exhibiting Japanese works of art. Yoshida portrays the grounds of the museum, a small spring surrounded by boulders and lush fall foliage. With these natural elements, characteristic of Japanese gardens, Yoshida connects this new institution to cultural traditions in Japan.   

Hillary Halter

Ishiyama Temple (Ishiyamadera), 1946

Color woodblock print

15 7/8 x 10 11/16 inches (40.3 x 27.1 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of
Warren H. and Mary I. Watanabe, 2001

2001-138-27

Artist Yoshida Tōshi produced this view of Ishiyama Temple in 1946. It depicts an interior view of a long-appreciated site associated with Lady Murasaki Shikibu, the famous author of The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari), and the landscape motif of the Eight Views of Ōmi. Works like this made by members of the Yoshida family studio were popular in the domestic market as well as with American Occupation personnel after World War II, and its representation of traditional Japanese culture may have been regarded as
an appealing subject for commercial sale.

Lin Zheng

Irozaki, Morning (Izu, Irōzaki), 1961

Irozaki, Day (Izu, Irōzaki), 1961

Irozaki, Evening (Izu, Irōzaki), 1961

Color woodblock prints

11 x 14 7/8 inches (27.9 x 37.8 cm) each

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of an
anonymous donor, 1966

1966-147-(1-3)

This series of three prints depicts the coastal region Irōzaki in Shizuoka Prefecture, a site famous for its beautiful views. Each print uses the same key block to produce identical outlines, while variations in hue applied to the color blocks change the images to represent different times of day and atmospheric conditions. The flat, saturated colors and bold lines are characteristic of Yoshida’s work. This series was used to demonstrate printmaking techniques in a short film accompanying Yoshida’s 1966 instructional book Japanese Print-Making.

Megan Czerwinski

Pattern Book: Moon through the Pine Trees
(Hinagata matsu no tsuki), 1697

Woodblock-printed book

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Books like this one offered viewers the opportunity to become familiar with the newest designs for kimono, since “in general, fashions change from year to year,” as the first line of its introduction may be translated. Kimono designs often featured elements drawn from classical poetry themes related to famous places, and well-versed readers would have recognized motifs as referring to those appreciated sites. Here, the floral design would have drawn the association to the site of the eight-plank bridge surrounded by flag irises (kakitsubata) in Musashino as described in the Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari) from the Heian period (794-1185).

Julie Nelson Davis

Illustrated Book: Field of Scarlet Kudzu
(Ehon makuzugahara), 1741 (reprinted 1760s)

Woodblock-printed book
Private Collection

Nishikawa Sukenobu was one of the Edo period’s most influential designers of illustrated books. Residing in Kyoto, he produced images that combined long-appreciated classical associations with contemporary styles and subjects. In this illustration Sukenobu shows a group of people enjoying an evening of boating on the river; on the left, the man reaches up to fan the fireflies, in a scene described in the poem above, just as the dusk is falling. Here, place and time are evoked through poetic associations with the fireflies in summer.

Julie Nelson Davis

Famous Products of Japan’s Mountains and Seas, Illustrated (Nihon sankai meisan zue), 1799

Woodblock-printed book

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

This five-volume work promoted various products from all around Japan, from its prosperous “mountains and seas,” as the title states. Specific places became famous for their manufacture, and curious readers could learn more about the honey from Kumano, sake wine from Itami, abalone from Ise, along with many other manufactured products. In one of the openings shown here, we see a fisherman cutting a tentacle from the great octopus from the Nakagawa River in Etchū. A view of Deshima, the fan-shaped island residence of Dutch traders in the period, is represented in the other volume; the area on the right is described as the “grounds of the red-haired Dutchmen,” and the vessel as the “red-haired Dutchmen’s ship coming into harbor.”

Julie Nelson Davis

Guide to Famous Places in Tokyo, Revised
(Kaisei Tōkyō meisho annai), 1890

Copperplate-printed book

Private Collection

Nagashima Shungyō is known for his woodblock print designs showing modern innovations in the late nineteenth-century bustling metropolis of Tokyo. In this guidebook Nagashima presents famous places from the city’s past and present. This opening shows renowned sites in the Ueno district: notably, at the upper right the mausoleum for the first Tokugawa shogun, the Tōshōgu, from 1616 is shown next to the new zoological garden, an institution opened in 1882, eight years prior to the publication of this book. This book was sold wrapped in the decorated envelope shown here; these covers, like so many dust jackets today, were often lost or tossed.

Julie Nelson Davis

Famous Places of Greater Edo at a Single Glance (Edo kinkō meisho ichiran), 1847 (reprinted 1858)

Woodblock-printed book

Private Collection

Like other early modern artists, Hiroshige trained as a painter, and his skill as such may be seen in his many remarkable compositions. While he often painted on commission, he made his living designing for print, producing some of the period’s most popular, well-loved, and long-lasting images. This is the second printing of what must have been a best-selling guide to the sights around Edo (modern day Tokyo), featuring selected illustrations by the master. It opens, as did most guidebooks to the city, with a view of Nihonbashi, the Bridge of Japan, humming with activity and trade, with Mount Fuji in the distance.

Julie Nelson Davis

Model Book: Votive Paintings of Itsukushima
(Itsukushima ema kagami), 1830

Woodblock-printed book

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

This recent acquisition by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries presents the votive paintings held by the Shintō shrine, Itsukushima Jinja, and is thus an important record for artistic production in the period. Long considered one of the three most beautiful sites in Japan, Itsukushima shrine is renowned for its building complex constructed on piers extending into the bay, as may be seen in this bird’s eye view. This book features exquisite printing techniques, as may be seen in the delicate coloration here.

Julie Nelson Davis

James Michener (1907-1997)

The Modern Japanese Print: An Appreciation, 1962

Imperial-size folio with tipped-in original woodblock prints

Hiratsuka Un'ichi (1895 - 1997)

Byodo-in, Lakeside (Byōdō-in Chihan) 

21 3/8 x 15 1/4 inches (54.3 x 38.7 cm)

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Yoshida Masaji
Earth No. 3 (Tsuchi 3)

21 3/8 x 15 1/4 inches (54.3 x 38.7 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Carl Zigrosser, 1964

1964-201-1(9)

Two illustrations in the book, The Modern Japanese Print: An Appreciation  

In 1959, James A. Michener organized a two-part printmaking competition in Tokyo and New York City with the aim of promoting the creativity and expressiveness of modern Japanese printmakers. This deluxe limited edition, issued in a special wood case, contains original prints numbered and signed by the ten winning artists. One was the personal copy of one of the American jurors, Carl Zigrosser, senior curator of prints at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A popular edition was later released by the publisher, Charles E. Tuttle.

The printmakers selected for the volume included both well-established masters and up-and coming artists of a younger generation. Hiratsuka Un’ichi was a prominent leader from the early years of the Sōsaku hanga movement, and later found a dedicated patron in Michener. Hiratsuka’s view of the Phoenix Hall (Byōdō-in) is representative of his signature postwar style of black and white. First trained in oil painting, Yoshida Masaji graduated from the prestigious Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1941. Turning to printmaking after the war, he became one of the last students of the famous Sōsaku hanga artist Onchi Kōshirō (1891-1955), who was said to call Masaji one of his best pupils. Earth No. 3 is typical of Masaji’s geometric abstraction, layered forms, and softly textured grey tones highlighted by muted pinks and blues.

Jeannie Kenmotsu