Japanese Woodblock Print, 1897, from the series "A Mirror of Beauties of the Ages", this being the Kan'ei Era, 1624-1644.

SIZE IN INCHES: oban, 9 x 14.5 inches

TOYOHARA CHIKANOBU (1838-1912), better known to his contemporaries as Yoshu Chikanobu, was a prolific woodblock artist of Japan's Meiji era. In 1875, he decided to try to make a living as an artist. He travelled to Tokyo. He found work as an artist for the Kaishin Shimbun. In addition, he produced nishiki-e artworks. In his younger days, he had studied the Kano school of painting; but his interest was drawn to ukiyo-e. He studied with a disciple of Keisai Eisen and then he joined the school of Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi; during this period, he called himself Yoshitsuru. After Kuniyoshi's death, he studied with Kunisada. He also referred to himself as Yoshu.

Like many ukiyo-e artists, Chikanobu turned his attention towards a great variety of subjects. His work ranged from Japanese mythology to depictions of the battlefields of his lifetime to women's fashions. As well as a number of the other artists of this period, he too portrayed kabuki actors in character, and is well known for his impressions of the mie of kabuki productions. Chikanobu was known as a master of bijinga, images of beautiful women, and for illustrating changes in women's fashion, including both traditional and Western clothing. His work illustrated the changes in coiffures and make-up across time. For example, in Chikanobu's images in Mirror of Ages (1897), the hair styles of the Tenmei era, 1781-1789 are distinguished from those of the Keio era, 1865-1867. His works capture the transition from the age of the samurai to Meiji modernity, the artistic chaos of the Meiji period exemplifying the concept of "furumekashii/imamekashii".

Chikanobu is a recognizable Meiji period artist, but his subjects were sometimes drawn from earlier historical eras. For example, one print illustrates an incident during the 1855 Ansei Edo earthquake. The early Meiji period was marked by clashes between disputing samurai forces with differing views about ending Japan's self-imposed isolation and about the changing relationship between the Imperial court and the Tokugawa shogunate. He created a range of impressions and scenes of the Satsuma Rebellion and Saigo Takamori. Some of these prints illustrated the period of domestic unrest and other subjects of topical interest.

VG, with flaws as shown