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Curator's Corner

Happy and Healthy New Year!

Monday, December 22, 2025 | Karl Cole

I cannot image a better way than saying “goodbye” to 2025 than with the uplifting, positive sentiments reserved for the pine tree in Japanese and Chinese cultures. There are very few e ...

Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Sato Koichi

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Sato’s poster work shows just how fully Japanese graphic designers have absorbed Western modernist aesthetics and combined them with traditional Japanese sensibilities. Japanese poster art d ...

Curator's Corner

The Week of Shichi-go-san: Kitagawa Utamaro

Monday, November 10, 2025 | Karl Cole

“Rites of passage” refer to cultures all over the world in which certain birthdays are celebrated as stepping stones to a new period of life. A Japanese example is Shichi-go-san. The n ...

Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Sekino Junichirō

Thursday, October 23, 2025 | Karl Cole

Sekino Junichirō was a woodblock printmaker in the sōsaku hanga movement, in which the artists draws the subject, cuts the woodblock, and prints the image themselves. These artists often incorpora ...

Curator's Corner

National Apple Day: Art by Yokoi Tomoe

Tuesday, October 21, 2025 | Karl Cole

There are about 7000 varieties of apple in the world. Apples have been a favorite element of still life since still life became an accepted stand-alone subject matter in Western art. The unique pr ...

Curator's Corner

Ode to Autumn Pattern: Kawanishi Hide

Tuesday, September 16, 2025 | Karl Cole

One of the traditions of Japanese art through the ages has been documenting the seasons and months of the year in art. My particular favorites are representations of autumn (it’s only a week awa ...

Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Ryōhei Tanaka

Monday, June 2, 2025 | Karl Cole

My gem of the month for June is a fantastic printmaker from Japan, Ryōhei Tanaka. If you ever want to teach a lesson about use of line to depict nature, this artist fills the bill for imagery. His ama ...

Curator's Corner

National Pet Day: Isoda Koryūsai

Friday, April 11, 2025 | Karl Cole

National Pet Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated on April 11. It was founded 2005/2006 by animal advocate and pet and family lifestyle expert Colleen Paige. The day is dedicated to all types of pe ...

Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Minami Keiko

Wednesday, February 12, 2025 | Karl Cole

Keiko Minami was a sōsaku hanga (creative print) artist, a group of printmakers (primarily woodcut) who created the drawing, carved the woodblock, and printed the image, as opposed to the traditional ...

Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Shimizu Seifu

Monday, February 10, 2025 | Karl Cole

The Chinese had a legend of the brave carp who swam against the current on the Yellow River to mate, and few were courageous enough to swim over the Dragon Gate waterfall. Those that did turned into d ...

Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Shinsui Itō

Tuesday, February 4, 2025 | Karl Cole

As an artist associated with the shin hanga movement, Shinsui Itō incorporated Western elements of perspective and attention to sculptural form into his work. He also observed compositional aspects of ...

Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Shirō Kasamatsu

Monday, October 28, 2024 | Karl Cole

Ukiyo-e was a woodblock print aesthetic that was popular from the late 1600s to the mid 1800s. The genre developed a visual vocabulary that documented the entertainments of Japanese urban centers, par ...

Curator's Corner

Happy New Year 2023: Totoya Hokkei

Tuesday, January 3, 2023 | Karl Cole

Mekari Shinji at the Mekari Shrine in Japan is an annual ritual of cutting wakame seaweed—symbolizing wealth and good fortune—from the ocean at low tide on New Year’s day of the old ...

Curator's Corner

Kimono Patterns and Ukiyo-e Prints

Monday, April 26, 2021 | Karl Cole

The Worcester Art Museum is hosting a fascinating exhibit tying kimono design and its importance in the ukiyo-e print aesthetic. Ukiyo-e, meaning “images of the floating (i.e. transient physical ...

Curator's Corner

Women's (Art) History Month: Tomoe Yokoi, Anna Atkins, and Agnes Northrop

Monday, March 23, 2020 | Karl Cole

This week of Women’s Art History Month, we’ll look at a printmaker, a pioneer photographer, and one of the secrets to Tiffany’s success in stained glass. ...

Curator's Corner

Chrysanthemum Day and Festival

Monday, September 9, 2019 | Karl Cole

I’ve shown this print on this blog before, but only in passing with other works concerning vacations. I’ve never gone into depth about a holiday that I think should be adapted around the w ...

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Happy and Healthy New Year!

Artist Birthday: Sato Koichi

The Week of Shichi-go-san: Kitagawa Utamaro

Artist Birthday: Sekino Junichirō

National Apple Day: Art by Yokoi Tomoe

Ode to Autumn Pattern: Kawanishi Hide

Gem of the Month: Ryōhei Tanaka

National Pet Day: Isoda Koryūsai

Artist Birthday: Minami Keiko

Artist Birthday: Shimizu Seifu

Artist Birthday: Shinsui Itō

Gem of the Month: Shirō Kasamatsu

Happy New Year 2023: Totoya Hokkei

Kimono Patterns and Ukiyo-e Prints

Women's (Art) History Month: Tomoe Yokoi, Anna Atkins, and Agnes Northrop

Chrysanthemum Day and Festival

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