After
Katsukawa Shuncho
Japanese (ca. 1783 - ca. 1821) Primary

Parody of the Wakana no Jô Chapter of the Tale of Genji (Modern Reproduction)

1900-1999, after original of 1794-1805

15 3/4 in. x 10 1/2 in. (40.01 cm x 26.67 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".
• color woodcuts - Woodcuts that incorporate color, usually through combining a series of blocks in precise registration that have been inked with individual hues and pressed onto one support.
• Genji
• Japanese - Nationality, periods, cultures, and styles found in Japan, either in historical times or in the present.
• parody - The form of analytical criticism in which one performance or work of art or literature subversively mimics another work or its style by adapting and inverting its characteristic features, in order to reveal weaknesses, pretensions, or lack of self-awareness in the original.
• 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.
• 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.

This object is a member of the following portfolios: