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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Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Yamaguchi Katsuhiro
Katsuhiro Yamaguchi was a key figure in the transition to modernism in Japanese art after World War II (1939–1945). He incorporated his view of modernist experiment almost as a science into nume ...
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Curator's Corner
National Pet Day: Isoda Koryūsai
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 ...
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Curator's Corner
National Poetry Month: Sōtatsu Tawaraya and Hon'ami Koetsu
I’ve posted previously about how poetry can be a visual art form when in the hands of a great calligrapher. I am not ashamed to repeat that assertion with this beautiful example of calligraphy c ...
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Curator's Corner
Artist Birthday: Nōguchi Shōhin
The painting style that evolved during the Southern Song Dynasty is considered by scholars to have been the classic example of Chinese monochromatic painting, particularly the "literati" sty ...
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