Artist: Mizuno Toshikata
Title: Beauty Sketching in a Field
Date: 1903
Details: More information...
Source:
Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description:
As the student of the last major ukiyo-e artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), and the teacher of one of the foremost nihonga painters of the early 20th century, Kaburaki Kiyokata (1878-1972), Toshikata played a key role in the transition from traditional ukiyo-e to modernized Japanese woodblock prints. Reportedly Toshikata was uncomfortable with his early connection to ukiyo-e, which had not yet been widely recognized as a legitimate “art form” in Japan in the early 20th century. This young schoolgirl sketching in plein air presents a modernized image of feminity. By the Taishö period (1912-1926), many girls’ schools were established, and reddish- brown pantaloons (ebicha -hakama), which were more functional than traditional kimono, became wildly popular with female students. Many of them also had hairstyles called hisashigami, a modified Western pompadour, and carried Western-style parasols. (“Girl Talk: 20th Century Japanese Prints Depicting Women ” 05/27/2010 - 08/1/2010)