{"id":38232,"date":"2025-04-24T16:22:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T07:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/localhost:10443\/en\/?p=38232"},"modified":"2025-04-24T16:22:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T07:22:38","slug":"tsutaya-tokyo-national-museum-2504","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/events\/tsutaya-tokyo-national-museum-2504\/","title":{"rendered":"Tsutaju, innovative publisher of the Edo period, featured at Tokyo National Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo’s Ueno Park is now running a special exhibition featuring books and ukiyo-e prints produced by Tsutaya Juzaburo (1750-97), who was an innovative publisher and a discoverer of artistic and literary talents during the pre-modern Edo period (17th-19th century). He is best known for unearthing prominent ukiyo-e artists such as Kitagawa Utamaro (1753?-1806) and Toshusai Sharaku (1763-1820).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A gate resembling that of the old pleasure quarters in Yoshiwara receives visitors at the entrance of the exhibition rooms. (From a press preview on Apr. 20, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Special Exhibition
Tsutaya J\u016bzabur\u014d: Creative Visionary of Edo<\/strong><\/p>

Apr 22 (Sat) – Jun 15 (Sun), 2025<\/p>

Tokyo National Museum
(Ueno Park, Tokyo)<\/p>*See outline below for details<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition, entitled “Tsutaya J\u016bzabur\u014d: Creative Visionary of Edo,” will showcase about 250 items associated with Tsutaju including kibyoshi<\/em> (literally, “yellow cover”) booklets, share-bon<\/em> (novels based on activities inside pleasure quarters) and ukiyo-e woodblock prints he published in his heyday. What might interest international visitors are the ukiyo-e prints of superb quality on display, including Utamaro’s “Three Famous Beauties,” and Sharaku’s yakusha-e<\/em> portraits of popular kabuki actors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kitagawa Utamaro’s “Three Famous Beauties”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Art writers and reporters view the artwork on display in an exhibition room adorned with flowers and trees at a press preview on Apr. 25, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A number of Toshusai Sharaku’s famous ukiyo-e prints are on display in the third chapter of the exhibition.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition is held in collaboration with Berab\u014d: Tsutaj\u016b Eiga no Yume Banashi<\/em> (“Unbound”), a Sunday-night historical drama based on the life of Tsutaju now showing on NHK (Japan’s national broadcasters). The huge gate set at the entrance of the exhibition rooms and the Kosho-do publishing house and other structures on display in the final chapter are borrowed from drama settings to evoke the atmosphere of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The “Kosho-do” publishing house, left, borrowed from a drama setting of “Unbound”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The museum gift shop showcases a variety of goods related to Tsutaju and the exhibition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the special exhibition is running on the second floor of the Heiseikan building, the museum is simultaneously running a thematic exhibition on the first floor, which focuses on shin-hanga<\/em>, or “new prints” from the early 20th century. The “Shin-hanga: Japanese Woodblock Prints after\u00a0Ukiyo-e<\/em>” will introduce visitors to the creators of this genre such as Kawase Hasui (1883\u20131957) and Yoshida Hiroshi (1876\u20131950).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Modern ukiyo-e prints are showcased in a separate exhibition on the first floor of Heiseikan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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“Ukiyo-e in Play” is now running at Tokyo National Museum’s Hyokeikan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Hyokeikan, a separate building close by on the museum premises, yet another ukiyo-e exhibition is now on. “Ukiyo-e In Play: Artists Re-Working the Traditions of Woodcut Prints” introduces visitors to modern-day artists, designers, and creators who were inspired by ukiyo-e’s traditional techniques and have created their own prints in their own fashion. Artists featured in this exhibition include Yayoi Kusama and Tadanori Yokoo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photos by Kazuki Matsuura)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tokyo National Museum in Tokyo’s Ueno Park is now running a special exhibition featuring books and u […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":38262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[213,84,95,96,362],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38232"}],"version-history":[{"count":127,"href":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38370,"href":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38232\/revisions\/38370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tsumugu.yomiuri.co.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}