Strong Women, Beautiful Men: Japanese Portrait Prints from the Toledo Museum of Art

Shin-hanga, literally meaning 'new prints', was the name given to a Japanese print artists' movement in the early years of the twentieth century. It sought to revive the traditional style of Ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the Edo period (1603-1868). The connection between shin-hanga and the Toledo Museum of Art began when Yoshida Hiroshi, one of the leaders of the movement, and his artist wife met J. Arthur MacLean and Dorothy Blair, at that time connected to the John Herron Art Museum in Indianapolis. When Mr. MacLean and Miss Blair established Toledo's Asian Art Department in 1927-28, they decided to collaborate with their friends the Yoshidas on two exhibitions of modern Japanese prints, which took place in 1930 and 1936. This book accompanies the Museum's exhibition, Strong Women, Beautiful Men, which explores the concept of the human form in Japanese woodblock prints. Many of the works in the extensive Toledo collection deal with the genre of popular figures, such as Kabuki actors in famous roles and bijin-ga, images of beautiful women. Contents: -Foreword - Don Bacigalupi, Director -Modern Japanese Prints in Toledo - Carolyn M. Putney, Curator of Asian Art -The Changing Faces of Japanese Woodblock Prints - Laura J. Mueller -Catalogue of Plates (50, each with brief text) -Artist Biographies; Glossary; Brief Checklist of Exhibition; Selected Bibliography; Concordance by -Accession Number; Index. Artists: Nishikawa Sukenobu, Torii Kyomasu II, Torii Kiyonobu II, Suzuki Harunobu, Ippitsusai Buncho, Torii Kiyonaga, Katsukawa Shunko, Katsukawa Shun'ei, Kitagawa Utamaro, Kikugawa Eizan, Katsushika Taito II, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Keisai Eisen, Kunisada (Toyokuni III), Toyohara Kunichika, Mizuno Toshikata, Migita Toshihide, Hashiguchi Goyo, Yoshikawa Kanpo, Ito Shinsui, Yamamura Toyonari, Miki Suizan, Natori Shunsen, Yoshida Hiroshi.