This thesis analyzes how the sudden surge of Tsukioka Kōgyo’s Noh prints relates to the popularization of Noh during the Meiji and Taishō periods. Within the context of the decline and revival of...Show moreThis thesis analyzes how the sudden surge of Tsukioka Kōgyo’s Noh prints relates to the popularization of Noh during the Meiji and Taishō periods. Within the context of the decline and revival of Noh, I examine how Kōgyo’s prints evoke characteristics of Noh culture through privileged perspectives on various aspects of the performance, and through the depiction of the actors rather than the stories. I argue that Kōgyo’s prints thus contributed to the promotion of modern Noh and the shaping of the public’s opinion about Noh theater in modern Japan.Show less
Before the Meiji period, women were typically portrayed as idolized beauties, fitting within the contemporary beauty ideals. However, due to the new influences coming from the West after the...Show moreBefore the Meiji period, women were typically portrayed as idolized beauties, fitting within the contemporary beauty ideals. However, due to the new influences coming from the West after the opening of the borders, artists started to challenge this standard bijin mode of representing women. Artists such as Kajiwara Hisako, Tadaoto Kainoshō and Chigusa Sōn created paintings depicting women in a whole new manner compared to former periods. While previously women were often shown as the epitome of beauty and sophistication, now there was room for representations of women who weren’t perfect nor appealed to the society’s beauty standards. This thesis analyses how male and female nihonga artists created anti-bijin in response to social and artistic developments in Meiji and Taisho Japan. Furthermore, it explores how and to what extent these works broke away from the bijin ideal and what the driving force was behind the creation of these works.Show less
The Meiji period was the source of many anxieties about the modernity brought in from overseas. However, this also meant reaping the benefits of the modern life. Ukiyo-e prints were used in the Edo...Show moreThe Meiji period was the source of many anxieties about the modernity brought in from overseas. However, this also meant reaping the benefits of the modern life. Ukiyo-e prints were used in the Edo period to entertain people like modern social media and in the early Meiji period, this continued. Meiji Ukiyo-e prints showing trains, carriages, modern buildings, and schools were used to show the Japanese people around the country what positive things modernity could accomplish. These prints manufactured a positive form of modernity that had a soothing effect on people who had feelings of anxiety about the country opening up, foreigners coming in, and the political and cultural systems changing. The government could censor ukiyo-e prints and thus might even have a say in the changing topics to introduce modern things like trains and Western-style buildings. Publishers and the government's influence on the prints' topics could have made a manufactured positive modernity. Also, prints showed scenes that were either beautified scenes of reality or made up by artists to help manufacture a positive image of the Meiji period. Meiji ukiyo-e prints had the effect of creating a positive notion of reality not only for the image of Japan as a great nation to the foreign powers but also as a way to show the capabilities of Japan’s modernization skills to the nationals living in the Meiji era Japan.Show less
