Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Japanese (1798 - 1861) Primary

Ôtsu: Koman, from the Series Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidô Road (Kisokaidô rokujûkyû tsugi no uchi) 「木曾街道六十九次之内　大津　小万」

Edo
1853

Sheet
14 1/4 x 9 3/4 in. (36.195 x 24.765 cm)

This object has the following keywords:

• banners - Pieces of cloth or other flexible material painted with signs or decorative designs and intended to be displayed by hanging or suspending. In heraldry, refers to square flags bearing heraldic devices. For other cloths intended to symbolize or to signal, use "flags."
• Edo - Refers to the period and style that developed from the unification of Japan in 1600 until the end of the shogunal dynasty in 1868. During this period, economic expansion encouraged the rise of an educated merchant class who created their own forms of literature and theater as well as new schools of painting and woodblock printing. A wide diversity of pictorial subjects and styles developed during this period and many 19th century Western artists were influenced by them.
• nishiki-e - Japanese prints in which numerous blocks are used to print many colors.
• oban - Japanese prints of a standard size about 15 3/4 by 10 1/2 inches.
• swimming - The activity of a person or animal propelling themselves in the water by natural means of progression, such as floating and kicking or paddling the limbs. For the activity of cleansing, prefer "bathing (hygienic activity)."
• Ukiyo-e - Distinctive genre in painting and other media, but most prominently in woodblock printing. It arose in the Edo period (1600-1868) and built up a broad popular market among the middle classes. Subject matter typically focused on brothel districts and kabuki theatres, with formats ranging from single sheet prints to book illustrations. Generally, the style is characterized by a mixture of the realistic narrative of the Kamakura period and the mature decorative style of the Momoyama and Edo periods. Distinctive styles and specialties in subject matter were developed by different schools throughout the period.
• Utagawa, Kuniyoshi, 1798-1861 - Sources:
  - Robinson, B. W.: Kuniyoshi, 1961
  - Suzuki, J. Kuniyoshi, 1985:
  - Forrer, M. Drawings by Utagawa Kuniyoshi from the collection of the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, 1988:
  - Info. from 678 field, converted 2012-10-25
  - LC database, June 12, 2020
• Utagawa, Kuniyoshi, 1798-1861. Sixty-nine stations of the Kisokaidô Road - Sources:
  - Thompson, Sarah E. Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 2009:
  - Kuniyoshi project, Oct. 21, 2008
  - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston website, Oct. 21, 2008
  - Grove art online, Oct. 21, 2008
• woodcuts - Prints made using the process of woodcut, which is a relief process in which the design is cut into and printed from the plank side of a wood block; distinct from "wood engraving (process)," which is a relief process using the grain end of a wood block.