![Three brave men slaying the giant <i>uwabami</i> [蟒蛇]: Imai Shirō (今井四郎) on the right, Higuchi no Jirō (樋口次郎) in the center and Tezuka Tarō (手塚太郎) on the left](https://woodblockprints.org/media/lyon_collection/images/6/67144_ca_object_representations_media_698_large.jpg)
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).