The Week of Shichi-go-san: Kitagawa Utamaro
“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 ...
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Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Sekino Junichirō
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 ...
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Curator's Corner
National Apple Day: Art by Yokoi Tomoe
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 ...
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Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Matsuzaki Kenichi
Kenichi Matsuzaki exemplifies the richness of the contemporary ceramic art of Japan. His rough surface stoneware works pay tribute to the centuries old traditions of Japanese ceramics, one of the ...
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Curator's Corner
Ode to Autumn Pattern: Kawanishi Hide
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 ...
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Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Kanō Motonobu
The Kanō School artists—the favored group of painters for the nobility and shogunate—worked in a variety of genre, including traditional yamato-e that included bright patterns and gold lea ...
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Curator's Corner
August Is National Dog Month: Kofun Period
I am not a “cat person” at all, but I absolutely love doggies of all sorts, big and small. I get my almost weekly dose of cuteness when I visit my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and get ...
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Curator's Corner
World Watercolor Month: Kawakami Ryoka
Japanese artists have been proficient in water-soluble media for centuries. Early forms of water-soluble media included gofun—crushed white clam shells mixed with water and pigments—and di ...
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Curator's Corner
Gem of the Month: Seto Ware
Let’s welcome the coming month of July with a gorgeous example of ceramics from Japan. Japanese ceramics have an incredibly long history and tradition of excellence. This tradition dates back to ...
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Curator's Corner
Gem of the Month: Ryōhei Tanaka
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 ...
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