**In the Ruined Palace at Sōma**
Ōban triptych
c. Kōka 2-3 (1845-46)
Private collection

Fri, Nov 15, 2024

Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka to feature Kuniyoshi’s oeuvre of ukiyo-e

The Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka — a relatively new museum of modern art and design located on a river island in the city of Osaka called Nakanoshima — is hosting an ukiyo-e exhibition featuring the oeuvre of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), who is most commonly known as one of the great woodblock printmakers of the late Edo period (17th-19th century).

UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI
― The Spellbinding Ukiyo-e Works of an Eccentric Artist
Dec 21 (Sat), 2024 – Feb 24 (Mon, hol), 2025
Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka
(Nakanoshima, Osaka)
*See outline below for details

“UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI – The Spellbinding Ukiyo-e works of an Eccentric Artist” (Organized by the museum and The Yomiuri Shimbun), set to open on Dec. 21, 2024, will put together about 400 works from among the oeuvre of Kuniyoshi, including a number of musha-e (warrior prints) and nikuhitsuga (hand-drawn ukiyo-e), making it one of the most comprehensive of exhibitions focusing on his works in recent years.

**The Story of Nippon Daemon and the Cat**
Ōban triptych
Kōka 4 (1847)
Private collection

Among Kuniyoshi’s works to go on display is his well known “In the Ruined Palace at Sōma” (see top photo). The oban (standard print size) triptych depicts a scene from the “Story on the Loyalty of Uto Yasukata” by Santo Kyoden (artist and writer; 1761-1816), in which Princess Takiyasha (daughter of Heian-period warrior Taira no Masakado and sorceress) summons a giant skeleton specter to intimidate her family’s enemy.

Kuniyoshi was also famous for his fondness of cats, and is said to have held a kitten when he worked. As such, “The Story of Nippon Daemon and the Cat,” another oban triptych, and the newly found oban “Fashionable Cat Transformations,” which demonstrate his ailurophile tendencies, are for certain among the must-sees.

Other works to go on display include “He Looks Scary but He is a Nice Person,” a somewhat bizarre woodblock print yose-e (composite picture) of a man with a face and hand composed of miniature human forms sometimes likened to Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s composite portraits, and “Courtesan Procession,” a color on silk nikuhitsu-ga hanging scroll by the ukiyo-e master.

The exhibition will run through Feb. 24, 2025.