Japanese Woodblock Prints at the Legion of Honor

A marvelous exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints has opened for the summer at the Legion of Honor Museum.

I visited with my friend James Parr who explained everything.

The exhibit is entitled Japanese Prints in Transition: From the Floating World to the Modern World. The museum's Achenbach Foundation for the Arts has taken a large selection of their light-fragile treasures out of storage and the prints are vivid. (Pictured is Toshusai Sharaku's The Actor Ichikawa Danjuro VI, 1794.)

In the gift shop, James heard someone asking a clerk if this was the "original" copy of Hokusai's world-famous The Great Wave off Kanagawa (center), and it was explained that there were actually thousands printed in the 1830s but only 100 currently survive. (Pictured are prints from Katsushika Hosukai's series 36 Views of Mt. Fuji, 1830-32.)

The exhibit is displayed chronologically with breakdowns into various themes and individual artists. (Pictured is a print from Utagawa Hiroshiges's series One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo, 1856-58.)

Following the American Naval Commander Perry's 1853-54 invasions of Tokyo Bay, things changed considerably. (Pictured is Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's Fujiwara no Yasumasa Playing the Flute by Moonlight, 1883.)

There are examples of prints dedicated to large modernization initiatives, fanciful depictions of Westerners at home, and pictures of foreign cities that the artists had obviously never visited. (Pictured is Utagawa Yoshitora's Paris, France from the series Some Famous Places of All Countries, 1862.)

As an amusing dessert, the final room is devoted to the satirical woodblock prints of the contemporary Japanese-American artist Masami Teraoka. (Pictured is MacDonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan/Tattooed Woman and Geisha III, 2014.)

A separate room off the entrance hallway is devoted to shunga, Japanese erotica which was banned following the Western modernization period of the 1868 Meiji Restoration.

It was interesting to note that the penises of Japanese men seem to be as large as those of horses. (The shunga above is attributed to Utagawa Kunisada, Lovers near a bridge, 1850-1860.)

If you are not woodblocked out, seek out the small new prints gallery down the museum hallway for some wonderful modern examples of the art form.