Japan at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Woodblock Prints from the Meiji Era, 1868-1912

Unlike traditional ukiyo-e prints, the woodblock prints of the Emperor Meiji's reign--the famous ''Meiji period'' of 1867-1912--depicted current events rather than timeless scenes, and were printed in vivid colors that reflected the vibrancy of Japan's rush toward modernization at the turn of the century. Part commercial art, part ''photo-op'' before the fact, and part propaganda tool (lest we forget), the Meiji prints chronicle Japan's fascinating and ambivalent relations with the West, its emergence as an industrial and military power and its populist emperor. In keeping with the new spirit of the Meiji years, the woodblock prints often feature lurid colors that prefigure twentieth-century poster art and point the way toward contemporary Japanese manga and animation. Japan At The Dawn Of The Modern Age features over 80 Meiji-era prints in full, dynamic color, along with two previously unpublished essays by the renowned historian and biographer Donald Keene on the Emperor Meiji and his times. Additional writings by curators Anne Nishimura Morse and Louise Virgin and the collector and historian Frederic Sharf place these writings in the context of their historical period, the collection itself and their current home at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.