• Lu Zhishen, the tattooed priest (Kaoshō Rochishin - 花和尚魯智深) from the series <i>Mirror of Heroes of the Shuihuzhuan</i> (<i>Suikoden gōketsu kagami</i> - 水滸傳豪傑鏡)
  • Snow (<i>Yuki</i> - 雪) - the title is embossed at the bottom
  • <i>The Clever Type</i> (<i>Rikō sō</i> - りこう相), from the series <i>Thirty-two Physiognomic Types in the Modern World</i> (<i>Tōsei sanjūni sō</i> - 当世三十弐相)
  • Diptych: The heated stages of pregnancy (in a lighter vein) - five heads, ten bodies (<i>Mimochi on’na natsu no tawamure – Gotō juttai no zu</i> - 妊婦炎暑戯 一名五頭十體の図)
  • Iwai Shijaku I (岩井紫若) as the courtesan Minoya Sankatsu (みの屋三勝), jumping into a boat from a bridge to join her lover Arashi Rikan II (嵐璃寛) as Akaneya Hanshichi (赤根屋半七) in the play <i>Daigashira Midori no Iromaku</i> ['The Surge of Love Beneath the Green Cover' 台頭緑色幕]
  • Illustration to Fontaine fable of belling the cat (<i>Choix de fables de La Fontaine illustrées par un groupe des meilleurs artistes de Tokio sous la direction de P. Barboutau</i>)
  • Triptych of a moonlit scene at a sacred Shintō site from the play <i>Yamatogana Heike monogatari</i> [倭仮名平家物語] - Iwai Hanshirō V (岩井半四郎) on the left as Monomi no Omatsu (物見のお松); Segawa Kikunojō V (瀬川菊之丞) in the center; Matsumoto Kōshirō V (松本幸四郎) on the right
  • Iwai Kumesaburō III [岩井粂三郎] as Karigane Bunshichi (雁金文七) holding a fan - right-hand panel of a pentaptych
  • Volume 1 of <i>Gaten Tsūkō</i> [画典通考]
  • Nakamura Shikan IV (中村芝翫) in the role of Asahina (朝比奈) in the play <i>Tsurigitsune Haru no Soga-giku</i> [釣狐春の曽我菊] - this is the center panel of a triptych

Welcome to The Lyon Collection!

Ukiyo-e Prints in the Mike Lyon Collection

Mike Lyon (artist b. 1951) was fortunate to have grown up familiar with Japanese prints. In his youth Lyon’s parents and grandparents displayed examples that certainly inspired his own artistic development. He began acquiring Japanese color woodcuts early in his career as an artist. The types of prints that feature most prominently among the many hundreds in Lyon's collection reflect the artist’s deep appreciation of the human figure and the expressive facial portrait. The vast majority of Japanese prints in the Lyon collection represent views of actors yakusha-e) and beautiful women (bijin-ga), and in particular the close-up, bust-length portraits of the same (okubi-e).

Browse Featured Galleries