When you look at this artwork it is hard to believe that Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters: Japanese Prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi from the Arthur R. Miller Collection on show at the Japan Society in New York from March 12 to June 13 features scenes created some 150 years ago.
The Japan Society program describes it as a major influence to this day on Manga and Anime artists.
The event features "over 130 dramatic depictions of giant spiders,
skeletons and toads; Chinese ruffians; women warriors; haggard ghosts;
and desperate samurai combat."
I picked as an illustration Tomimori Masakata, One of the Forty-Seven Loyal Retainers, 1847 (above *).
The character seems to carry the weight of the world.
(*Color woodblock print, 14 ¾ x 10 1/8 in. American Friends of the
British Museum (The Arthur R. Miller Collection) 15227. Photo ©
Trustees of the British Museum).
For more on the artist, check the Kuniyoshi Project by William Pearl.
Trying not to be too graphic or too ancient for Tokyo Thursdays # 125
Previously:
Fruits are Like Babies and Other Words of Wisdom from Takahiko Takahashi (via Japan Times)