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Introduction

Triptychs in Japanese Printmaking

June 6 - August 31, 2003

This exhibition focuses on three-panel prints (triptychs) in Japan during the late 18th and 19th centuries. Printmaking was a commercial as well as an artistic venture. In the printer’s workshop, speed and efficiency were essential for cost-effective production. To facilitate the process, the image was usually printed from a single carved woodblock onto a stand-size sheet of paper.

Toward the end of the 18th century, artists began to combine two or more sheets to expand the surface area available for their compositions. The end result was a more sweeping design in which panoramic views of landscape and ore elaborate figural arrangements were possible.

The examples in this gallery illustrate how Japanese printmakers learned to manipulate the multi-panel format to unify and dramatize their subjects. Kiyonaga was one of the first artists to experiment with the triptych. In his print of Women Visiting Mimeguri, 1787, the female figures assume a monumentality because of their placement in the foreground. The Toyohiro pentatych (five-panel print), although smaller in scale, exhibits the same visual effect. These early works with subjects at close range contrast with the deeper space of Eizan’s Elegant Banquet by a Winding Stream and the dramatic image of the skeleton brought to life by Princess Takiyasha in Kuniyoshi’s triptych of ca. 1844. The depiction of new subject matter such as landscape also worked well on the grander scale of the triptych. These very striking and powerful designs demonstrate how Japanese printmakers constantly revitalized their tradition through innovations in format, composition, and subject.

Selected Objects

Kikukawa Eizan

Fashionable Winding-Water Banquet (Furyu kyokusui no en), 1810s

Torii Kiyonaga

Bush-Clover Garden, Ryoganji, Mimeguri Shrine (Hagi no niwa: Ryoganji Mimeguri), ca.1787

Toyohiro Utagawa

Parody of the Korean ambassador's procession (Mitate chosen tsushinshi), 1810's

Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)

The Seventh Month: Waiting for the Moon (Fumizuki: Nijurokuya machi), 1854

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

A Parody of the Sixteen Arhats (Mitate jūroku rakan), 1843-1847

Utagawa Hiroshige

Mountains and Rivers Along the Kiso Road (Kisoji no yamakawa), 1857

Katsukawa Shuntei

River Battle (Kassen), 1808

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Takiyasha Summons a Skeleton to confront Mitsukuni in the Sōma Castle, ca. 1844

Shun'yōsai Shunshi

Scrapbook album of Onoe Tamizô II of Osaka (nidai Onoe Tamizô) (1799-1886), mid 1820's

Utagawa Hiroshige

Enjoying the Evening Cool with Fireworks, Ryogoku Bridge (Ryogoku noryo ohanabi), 1847-1852

Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)

The Eighth Month: Moon Viewing on the Fifteenth Night (Hatsuki: Tsukimi), 1854

Attributed to Liu Songnian

The Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion, 1800s

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

Triptychs in Japanese Printmaking

June 6 - August 31, 2003
View Checklist PDF

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