Reflections of Beauty: Late Nineteenth-Century Japanese Prints in the Smart Museum Collection

The three artists featured in this exhibition—Kunisada (1786–1865), Kunishika (1835–1900), and Chikenobu (1838–1912)—represent a line of teacher-student succession that traces different reactions to these changes: from initial fascination to eventual nostalgia. The lavishly printed bijinga or “beautiful women” prints and related theatrical woodblocks in this exhibition not only capture the ideal of fleeting beauty so highly esteemed by male audiences at the time, but also more broadly reflect longing for a traditional culture which was quickly vanishing due to the rapid, often disorienting tempo of Japan’s Western-style modernization.