#ukiyo-e
Nine pages from the book Hyakubyô gafu (Pictures of One Hundred Cats), by Utagawa Hiroshige III (1842–1894).
Snow at Ginkakuji Temple, by Asano Takeji (1930).
Snow on the Willow Bridge, by Ohara Koson (ca. 1920).
Snow animation of ‘Night Snow at Kambara’ by Ando Hiroshige (ca. 1830).
More from Shigeko Inoue: ‘Ocean Sounds’ (2000).
“Glimpsing at the seabed through the water and the complexity of the light within, at a soothing southern sea.” By Shigeko Inoue (2002).
Born in 1945, Inoue studied traditional Japanese and Italian woodblock printing. Her work focuses on nature, transparency and the movement of water.
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.
Music: Diddy Kong Racing (1997)
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!
Picture source: https://www.wikiart.org/en/utagawa-kuniyoshi/cats-suggested-as-the-fifty-three-stations-of-the-tokaido
