Toyohara Chikanobu (豊原周延) (artist 1838 – 1912)

Young girl under a black parasol or yōgasa [黒の洋傘] from the series True Beauties (Shin Bijin - 真美人) - this is #14 of 36

Print

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Date:10/10/1897
Dimensions:9.25 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese woodblock print
Inscription:Signature: Yōshū Chikanobu (楊洲周延)
Publisher: Akiyama Buemon (Marks 005)
Date: 1897
Meiji 30, 10th month, 10th day
(明治三十年, 十月, 十日)
Number 14 (十四)
Links Ritsumeikan University
Edo-Tokyo Museum
The National Museum of Asian Art
Machida City Museum - middle example
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art
National Gallery of Victoria
Portland Art Museum
National Library of Australia
Lyon Collection - another print from this series, #1 Description:In a catalogue of the Portland Art Museum it says of this print:

[Chikanobu] could also keep up with the times. A schoolgirl is featured in a series of True Beauties of the Meiji period (1868-1912). Clues to changing fashion include the somewhat jarring combination of a buttoned-up shirt in pink and gray checks with a cherry blossom-patterned pale green kimono. The shirt tells us that she is both modern and modest, while the kimono reassures us that she is still utterly feminine. The burnished design of black-on-black flowers in the parasol and the exceptionally fine carving and printing attest to the high level of craftsmanship found in woodblock prints at he end of the nineteenth century.

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Note the ring on her left hand holding the Western style book.

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Illustrated in:

1) in color in The New Wave: Twentieth-century Japanese prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection, Bamboo Publishing, Ltd. and Hotei Publishing, 1993, page 79, no. 34.

2) color in large reproduction on page 264 in The Artist's Touch The Craftsman's Hand: Three Centuries of Japanese Prints from the Portland Art Museum, p. 265 [the text].

3) in color on the front of an exhibition catalog, 明治の浮世絵版画, from the Obihiro Museum of Art, Hokkaido, 1998.

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There are at least 36 prints in this set. 34 of them are viewable at the Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna. There are two prints from this group in the Lyon Collection, this one and #1406.
Related entities Akiyama Buemon (秋山武右衛門) (publisher)
beautiful women (bijin-ga - 美人画) (genre)
Meiji era (明治時代: 1868-1912) (genre)

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