With the coming of the Meiji Period, Japanese painters were stimulated by the realism of Western oil painting, causing them to explore the themes, techniques, and principles of new “Japanese painting.” As the creative environment changed with the establishment of art groups large and small, the creation of the Bunten exhibitions that gathered works by the general public from all over Japan, and the rise of art journalism, each painter pursued the kind of Japanese painting that suited that age and generated a diverse range of artworks.
The Mizuta Collection is known for its ukiyo-e, but it also contains a small number of fine modern Japanese paintings by representative artists. In this exhibition, we present not only the paintings of Kaburaki Kiyokata and Itō Shinsui that portray beautiful women in a style that carries on the spirit of ukiyo-e, but also the works of painters like Hishida Shunsō, Shimomura Kanzan, and Maeda Seison who lead the Japanese art world in the pursuit of new Japanese painting. Visitors will get a taste of a variety of aspects of modern Japanese painting. We are also displaying woodblock print series by the last ukiyo-e masters Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and Yamamoto Shōun as a feature on ukiyo-e of beautiful women in the Meiji period.
Hishida Shunsō,
Spring Landscape,
1897-1906, color on silk, hanging scroll
