This year, I've had three opportunities to see ukiyo-e of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and this post is about the third exhibit I attended with my daughter.

If you're curious, you can see two of my previous posts about Kuniyoshi here and here. I've become a huge fan of his art through two past exhibits, and I invited my daughter to go with me. This exhibit featured a Chinese novel, Water Margin. I was so impressed by some of his art based on Water Margin at the second exhibit I attended that I was really looking forward to seeing the complete series.

In the novel, there are 108 characters, and Kuniyoshi depicted 74 of them in ukiyo-e. We could see the entire series in the exhibit. Fortunately, photography was allowed, so I took pictures of all characters.

Even the entrance looked really cool, and I was already very excited.

You might see some of the same pieces in my previous post, but I'd like to share the photos of all the characters here. Creating ukiyo-e requires three different craftsmen: a painter, a woodblock carver, and a printer. We know Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Kuniyoshi as ukiyo-e artists, but we tend to forget about the woodblock cavers and printers. Every time I see these amazing ukiyo-e prints, I can't stop but help thinking about woodblock cavers and printers. They did just as amazing jobs as ukiyo-e painters did, but we don't know their names. This is very unfair to them. If they hadn't done such wonderful jobs, definitely ukiyo-e painters wouldn't have become famous. We should respect these unknown craftsmen as well.

My daughter and I talked about such things while looking around these pieces. It was her first time seeing Kuniyoshi's ukiyo-e, and she also immediately became a big fan of his art. He is so good at capturing the moment of the movement.

This exhibition had three different sections: the Kuniyoshi section, the ancient Chinese section, and the modern section. Although photography wasn't allowed in the ancient Chinese section, we could take pictures of the modern section.

Several abstract artworks were hanging on the walls. They were inspired by Water Margin, but I didn't understand how they connect with the novel.

I'm not interested in video games at all, so I might be wrong. I guess these characters are from the game Suikoden.

Some original paintings from a Chinese book were also on display.

I've never read this manga, but it also based on Water Margin.

An original painting from the manga also was on display.

The illustrations in a calendar of Water Margin from China looked so adorable.

After the exhibition, I bought an e-book of Water Margin for my kindle. I think it's time for me to start reading the novel.

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