* Fees in parentheses are group rates for 20 or more visitors.
* Free admission for visitors 70 years old and older, and children junior high school aged and younger.
* Half price for visitors with a disability certificate, and half price for one accompanying caregiver.

The Aoki Collection is comprised of the works collected by the Atsuta Town (now Sakura City, Tochigi Prefecture) businessman Aoki Tosaku (1870-1946) over the course of the Taisho and early Showa eras, and donated to Bato Town (now Nakagawa Town) by surviving family members in February 1997.

Aoki Tosaku took a fancy to art appreciation from his earliest childhood. Over his lifetime, influenced in part by the friendship he struck up with Tokutomi Soho, he collected the works of artists and cultural figures of his day, with ukiyo-e artwork at the core. The 4200 or so donated works can be divided into eight categories: (1) hand-painted art by Utagawa Hiroshige, (2) ukiyo-e woodblock prints, (3) modern Meiji Era woodblock prints focusing on those by Kobayashi Kiyochika, (4) western-style art and other source materials related to Kawamura Kiyoo, (5) Japanese art and other source materials related to Kubota Beisen, (6) source materials, calligraphy boxes, calligraphy and photographs related to Tokutomi Soho, (7) Edo-era printed books, and (8) lacquerware and swords.

In this exhibition, we celebrate the tenth year of the museum's opening by introducing the entire range of the Aoki Collection. Come and see the works that were the focus of Aoki Tosaku's passion.

First Half: January 15, 2011
Second Half: March 5, 2011
1:30 p.m. (requires payment of admission fee)

* Fees in parentheses are group rates for 20 or more visitors.
* Free admission for visitors 70 years old and older, and children junior high school aged and younger.
* Half price for visitors with a disability certificate, and half price for one accompanying caregiver.

Ukiyo-e was born in the womb of early modern period genre art painted in the 16th-17th Centuries. The term �gukiyo�h was a newly coined word derived from a Buddhist term yusei, which means to live hedonistically in the present world?from which it came to refer to popular fashions.

Once the government of Edo Shogunate had stabilized in the Genroku years of the Edo Period (1688-1703), people began to enjoy the new peace by going out to visit the Kabuki theater, the pleasure quarters, and shrines, temples & other famous locations in the Edo area. Consequently, these places came to be depicted as subjects in ukiyo-e art. Hishikawa Moronobu (?-1694) is today called the father of ukiyo-e. He became a popular artist for his unique style of painting, woodblock illustration, single-plate woodblock prints, and other artwork, and this drove up the prices of ukiyo-e sold for aesthetic appreciation. All kinds of artists followed Moronobu�fs lead, each producing works in his own unique style.

The brocade woodblock prints which Suzuki Harunobu and others innovated were passed out at the print exchange parties that became popular beginning in 1746, the first year of the Meiwa Period (1746-72). Harunobu completed a style of print featuring neat, petite and slender female figures; he innovated a variety of techniques including bokashi shading, pigment-less impressions, and the jitsubushi background color technique. After Harunobu, many art factions emerged, innovating a variety of techniques and designs in a spirit of friendly competition, leaving us prints of beautiful ladies, famous actors, landmarks (and the customs associated with them), and a host of other subjects. What followed was a golden age in the world of ukiyo-e, producing Kitakawa Utamaro, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige and others.

As we come up on our 10th anniversary, with the courtesy of the Kawasaki Isago no Sato Museum
we are presenting some of ukiyo-e�fs most famous, finest paintings and prints representing ukiyo-e�fs beginnings through to its final period. The unique culture which was nurtured in the national isolation of the Edo Period exerted a great influence on Western Europe. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an overview of the world of ukiyo-e, the medium of this influence.

* Fees in parentheses are group rates for 20 or more visitors.
* Free admission for visitors 70 years old and older, and children junior high school aged and younger.
* Half price for visitors with a disability certificate, and half price for one accompanying caregiver.

Taiso Yoshitoshi (1839-92), whose real family name was Yoshioka, was usually called Yonejiro. His was a merchant family, carrying out their business in the Shimbashi Maruyacho district of Tokyo. Yoshitoshi aspired to be an artist, entering Utagawa Kuniyoshi's school at the age of 11. Four years later, he was drawing the illustrations for the printing blocks, a sign of how soon he had mastered artistic skills. He followed his teacher's style, being particularly good at depictions of actors, but in 1861 Kuniyoshi passed away. Six years later, with the onset of the Meiji Era, it was as if a dam had broken and Western culture flooded Japan. Thereafter, ukiyo-e fell into decline, although Yoshitoshi's popularity remained exceptionally high. In 1872, the fifth year of the Meiji Era, he developed a nervous disorder, and for a time was unable to work, but recovered the following year. However, he remained troubled by this illness the rest of his life. When he had a respite from the illness, he put his hand to full-color artwork for newspapers, and the works he created were well received for their detailed composition and clarity of color. �gOne Hundred Aspects of the Moon�h was created in a seven to eight year period between 1885 and 1892, a set containing one hundred prints in all. The publisher was Akiyama Bueimon, who carried out the woodblock engraving and coloring with an attention to detail. The subject matter was selected from classical Chinese and Japanese stories, the moon as the theme. Although he consulted reference books for his compositions, in Yoshitoshi's style we can almost always detect an originality that makes it difficult to realize there even were any sources referred to.

To commemorate the 120th anniversary of Taiso Yoshitoshi's death, we are presenting 62 works from the tour de force of Yoshitoshi's final years, the monumental print series �gOne Hundred Aspects of the Moon.�h It our hope you will find great satisfaction in the works of an artist who has been called �gthe last ukiyo-e artist.�h

Saturday, July 2, beginning at 1:30 p.m.

* Fees in parentheses are group rates for 20 or more visitors.
* Free admission for visitors 70 years old and older, and children junior high school aged and younger.
* Half price for visitors with a disability certificate, and half price for one accompanying caregiver.

Ghosts and monsters were a familiar presence to people in the Edo period, whose nights were spent illuminated only by the dim light of paper lanterns. Monsters were believed to gather late at night and wander around town, so people sensed them everywhere in the darkness.

All kinds of information about ghosts and monsters was popularly circulated, and their figures were depicted in ukiyo-e prints and picture books. Kabuki and Rakugo also deal with famous ghost stories; "The Tokaido Yotsuya Ghost Story","The Dish Mansion at Bancho", "Peony Lantern" and others became major hits. Filled with curiosity, the people of Edo would have been on the edge of their seats as they enjoyed these Kabuki and Rakugo stories.

This exhibition introduces the various ghosts and monsters through picture scrolls, ukiyo-e prints and picture books of the Edo and Meiji periods. Not only such monsters as O-kiku, O-iwa, Kappa, Nurarihyon, and Rokurokubi who are familiar to people today, but a full contingent of creepy and humorous supernatural creatures show up in the exhibition to make your first acquaintance. Step into the museum, and you, too, may get caught up in the mysterious world of Edo's monsters.

* Fees in parentheses are group rates for 20 or more visitors.
* Free admission for visitors 70 years old and older, and children junior high school aged and younger.
* Half price for visitors with a disability certificate, and half price for one accompanying caregiver.

Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) is the artist who best represents the Taisho Shin Hanga Movement. Hasui was born in the Shiba district of Tokyo, but due to frail health he spent his early childhood years with his aunt in Nasu Shiobara in Tochigi Prefecture. He loved pictures from the time he was a child, and at the age of 27 he became a student of Kaburaki Kiyokata. In 1918, he saw the woodblock print series Eight Views of Omi Province by fellow Kiyokata student Ito Shinsui, and this inspired him to tell the publisher of the series, Watanabe Shozaburo, that he wanted to create woodblock prints, too.

At that time, Shozaburo was aspiring to produce a new kind woodblock print, and was looking for artists. He was trying to create woodblock prints at his print house utilizing the same kind of drawing, engraving and printing collaboration as in the Edo Period, while pursuing an even higher level of artistry. He gained the participation of many artists and artisans in what would later come to be called the Taisho Shin Hanga (Taisho Era New Woodblock Print) Movement.

In 1918, under Shozaburo, Hasui introduced a three-part work - Okane Road, Shiobara; Down the Fields of Shiobara; and Shiogama in Shiobara. He probably first wanted to draw Nasu Shiobara's beautiful mountain scenery because he had grown up looking at it as a child. Once the Shiobara triptych gathered acclaim, Hasui became the central artist supporting the Taisho Shin Hanga Movement, and throughout his life, he continued to draw landscapes from across Japan.

We survey the artistry of Hasui, who has been nicknamed "The Traveling Woodblock Print Artist" and "The Showa Period's Hiroshige." In conjunction with the landscapes of Hasui's beloved Tochigi which this exhibition is focusing on, we are also introducing his doll prints and figure prints. Hasui's gorgeous depictions of Japanese landscapes seem to draw out nostalgic memories, capturing the hearts of all who see them.

* Fees in parentheses are group rates for 20 or more visitors.
* Free admission for visitors 70 years old and older, and children junior high school aged and younger.
* Half price for visitors with a disability certificate, and half price for one accompanying caregiver.

The Aoki Collection contains many works related to the Chushingura story. In the Edo period Chushingura was called a dokujinto (a panacea) because performances of it always could be anticipated to go well and draw an audience.

Known by everyone who is Japanese, the Ako Incident had its beginnings on March 14, 1701. The head of the Ako clan, Asano Takumi-no-kami Naganori, drew his sword on Kira Kōzuke-no-suke Yoshinaka in the hallway of Honmaru Palace at Edo Castle. Asano committed ritual suicide the same day, his household was disbanded and his lands were confiscated, while no condemnation of Kira was made in the judgment. Dissatisfied with the ruling, on December 14 of the following year forty-seven of Asano’s former samurai raided Kira’s compound and avenged their lord, achieving a long-anticipated goal.

People living in the great peace of the Genroku period were excited by the story of the samurai avenging their lord in Chushingura (the Treasury of the Local Retainers), as it was first called in Kanadehon Chushingura, a ningyo joruri puppet play performed at the Takemoto-za theater in Osaka. It is said that the name “Chushingura” was newly coined, and the 47 characters of “hiragana” [referenced by “Kanadehon” in the title] were an allusion to the 47 men of the Ako clan who avenged their lord.

Following this, “Chushingura” was performed in the kabuki theater, and became one of its most popular programs. Today, Chushingura is dealt with as subject matter on television, and in movies and novels.

In this exhibit, we focus our attention on “Chushingura,” one of the most frequently depicted ukiyo-e subjects. You will be able to see how people of that time appreciated this story, and can get to know the various artists who depicted it.

※Fees in parentheses for groups of 20 or more
※Visitors age 70 and above, and junior high school age and below admitted for free
Visitors with a disability certificate, and one accompanying caregiver admitted for half-price.

　Tokutomi Soho (1863-1957) was born in Higo Province, the firstborn son of Tokutomi Kazutaka and his wife Hisako. Based on the acclaim of "The Future of Japan," published in Kumamoto in 1886, he moved his family to Tokyo, and in 1887 began publishing "The National Citizen’s Friend" as a nationwide general interest magazine. Because he covered current affairs and literature, he was in contact with many cultural figures. Following this, he continued to consider how Japan should proceed on the road ahead, at one point in time becoming a member of the House of Lords. However, when Katsura Taro - who recommended Soho as a member - died, Soho left the world of politics, and devoted himself to the newspaper venture "Modern Japanese National Citizen History."
Aoki Tosaku (1870-1946) remembers the deep impression made when he read the inaugural issue of "The National Citizen’s Friend," and went to visit Soho. Thereafter, Tosaku looked up to Soho as a mentor by supporting his work, and Soho looked on Tosaku as a good friend, exerting a subtle influence on Tosaku’s art collecting. Their relationship lasted nearly 60 years, until Tosaku’s death.
Through his calligraphy and resource materials from people who knew him, we will introduce Tokutomi Soho - the journalist, the man of culture and the politician who pulled Japan forward, and his relationship with Aoki Tosaku, who supported his activities.