Japan at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Woodblock Prints from the Meiji Era

Woodblock prints from the Meiji era (1868-1912) challenge our notion of Japanese pictures as romanticized, timeless images of geisha, kabuki actors, and picturesque landscapes. Instead, they depicted current events with a propagandistic flair, and were printed in vivid colors reflecting the vibrancy of Japan's rush toward modernization at the turn of the century. As feudal Japan was transformed into a unified, modern state and emerged as a military and industrial power, woodblock printmakers chronicled and validated the introduction of Western technology, architecture, dress, and social practices, as well as the wars that propelled Japan into the international community. In keeping with the new spirit of the Meiji years, the woodblock prints often feature lurid colors that prefigure twentieth-century poster art and stylistically point the way toward contemporary Japanese manga and animation. Japan at the Dawn of the Modern Age features over eighty Meiji-era prints in full color, along with two previously unpublished essays by the renowned literary critic, historian, and biographer Donald Keene on Meiji and his times. Additional writings by curators Anne Nishimura Morse and Louise E. Virgin, and the collector and historian Frederic A. Sharf place these prints in the context of their times, their collection, and their home at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.