Avengers Endgame GREAT Ukiyo-e redesigns by Takumi
I don’t care much about the franchise anymore, but a movie with those characters settings+designs (Raijin Thor? shinobi/kunoichi Blackwidow? onna bugeisha Captain Marvel? ant riding yabusame Antman? arquebus Rocket!)? Sign me right in!
Ito Shinsui (1898 - 1972) fue uno de los más grandes artistas de la shin hanga o el nuevo movimiento impreso en el siglo XX en Japón. Shinsui estudió con el impresor ukiyo-eKiyokata. A la edad de dieciocho años, el editor Watanabe Shozaburo pidió a Shinsui hacer diseños de bloques de madera para su compañía después de ver las pinturas de la joven artista en exposición. Shinsui creó impresiones para Watanabe de 1916 a 1960, ganando gran estima por sus imágenes de mujeres hermosas. En 1952, el gobierno de Japón declaró los talentos de Shinsui como un Tesoro Nacional Intangible, y en 1970 recibió la Orden del Sol Naciente. Hoy sus imágenes elegantes y modernas de bellezas son muy apreciadas por los coleccionistas.
Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectreis a ukiyo-e woodblock triptych by Japanese artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861). Kuniyoshi was known for his depictions of historical and mythical scenes, and combined both in portraying the tenth-century princess Takiyasha summoning a skeleton spectre to frighten Ōya no Mitsukuni.
One of Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s ukiyo-e works is called ‘Cats suggested as the fifty three stations of the Tokaido’ and, as it’s name unsubtly suggests, depicts each station of Japan’s historical Tokaido route as cats.
My wife has a cushion of the cat representing Shinagawa, shown at the top of the picture in this post, which she bought at a shop in Ueno Station in Tokyo. We’ve been trying to work out how the cat and its name are connected with Shinagawa, as some of the other cats in Kuniyoshi’s work are puns or plays of the names of the stations.
I’d be really grateful to anyone able to help solve this little mystery, so that we can know our cat better!
