Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Japanese (1798 - 1861) Primary

Right Panel from a Diptych: Ichikawa Kadonji IV as Princess Yaegaki (八重垣 姫) from the Play Hanano Yuki Takedano Kachidoki (花眺雪武田勝凱)

Edo
1850

Sheet
14 5/8 x 9 3/4 in. (37.148 x 24.765 cm)

This object has the following keywords:

• bijinga - Paintings or prints that depict beautiful women. This term, which literally means "pictures of beautiful women," was most likely coined in the Edo period (1615-1868) or the Meiji period (1868-1912). Before this period, these pictures may have been called "onna-e" or "bijin-e".
• diptychs - Refers to works comprising pairs of panels hinged together. They were used by the ancient Romans for writing tablets, often having images on the outer surfaces. In Medieval and later times, they were used primarily to support images for altarpieces and other purposes, most often composed of carved ivory or of painted wood panels, with the primary images on the interior surfaces.
• 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.
• foxes - General term referring to various members of the family Canidae, especially those of the genus Vulpes, such as the red or common, fox (V. vulpes), which lives in both the Old World and the New World. Several other foxes belong to genera other than Vulpes, including the North American gray fox, the Arctic fox, and the the bat-eared fox, and the crab-eating fox. Foxes resemble small dogs, with pointed snouts, large ears, and bushy tails.
• helmets - Any of various forms of protective coverings for the head, usually made of a hard material, including the outside steel layer of helmets that consist of inner and outer parts.
• reflections - The perceived result of rays of light turned back when they strike a surface and are not absorbed, as from a mirror.
• 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
• warriors - Those trained for or engaged in the physical combat of warfare, especially close hand-to-hand combat, and designated for or sanctioned in that function by the society or group for which they fight, irrespective of membership in an army. Includes men of the warrior age grade in certain pre-literate societies, as for instance, among some East African pastoral societies. For members of an army, whether directly involved in combat or in other duties, use "soldiers."
• 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.