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Asian Art Calendar of Events

Thursday, March 28, 2024


Exhibition Public - USA & Canada

The Printer's Eye: Ukiyo-e from the Grabhorn Collection

Asian Art Museum
200 Larkin St.,
San Francisco, CA 94102, USA
Feb 20, 2015 To May 10, 2015


Detail: The Printer’s Eye introduces rarely seen ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world,” from the Grabhorn Collection—a superb assemblage of Japanese woodblock prints.

In Edo Period Japan (1615–1868), the phrase “floating world” evoked a pleasure-seeking way of life, free from everyday obligations. Ukiyo-e depicted the many public entertainments available to residents of Edo (present-day Tokyo), often focusing on the city’s Kabuki theaters and the Yoshiwara—Japan’s most famous pleasure quarter.

The woodblock prints in The Printer’s Eye document leisure activities, fashions and celebrities of the floating world, including prominent courtesans, actors and even a teahouse waitress known throughout the districts for her beauty. The exhibition unpacks these carefully orchestrated scenes—dense with up-to-date styles and tongue-in-cheek references to Edo popular culture—and provides an “insider look” at their coded meanings, as well as the techniques behind their beautiful and complex designs.

Phone No.: 415.581.3500
Fax: 415.581.4700
Contact Email: [email protected]
Site URL: http://www.asianart.org/exhibitions_index/printers-eye



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