Katsukawa Shunshō was a Japanese painter and printmaker known for his ukiyo-e style, particularly his prints of Kabuki actors and Bijin-ga paintings – paintings of beautiful women. He started life as a student of both haiku and painting. Painting drew him to become a printmaker of the actors he mixed with in the floating world…

Following on from the last post on the theme of Japanese art, this is a woodblock print I photographed in the University of the Arts in Taitō City ward in Tokyo. The print is entitled Courtesan and a Handsome Youth, and is by Isoda Koryusai who has an interesting story. He was a samurai employed…

Ukiyo-e art meant ‘pictures of the floating world’. It was a way of seeing life as ever-changing, with bittersweet fleeting moments. Nothing was out of bounds – theatres, brothels, tea houses, labourers, travellers, artists, prostitutes, lovers. And always feeling that life was ephemeral and impossible to grasp. Ukiyo-e Style Ukiyo-e developed as Edo (the old…

Mandarin ducks are perching ducks. You often see them resting on a low branch near water. And at the right time of year they congregate on the water. With their feathers like sails, they look like miniature armadas floating on the waves. We have been watching birds of all kinds for years. Occasionally one bird…