Chiyoda Castle (Album of Men)
Medium
Diptych of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
L. (page) 13 7/8 in. (35.2 cm); W. (page) 9 1/4 in. (23.4 cm); thickness of album 1 9/16 in. (4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Culture & Period
Japan · Meiji period (1868–1912)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. W. Walton Butterworth, 1979
Accession Number
JP3560
Tags
Art Historical Context
Yōshū Chikanobu’s *Chiyoda Castle (Album of Men)*, created in 1897, offers a vivid glimpse into Japan’s Meiji period (1868–1912), a time of rapid modernization following centuries of isolation. As a leading ukiyo-e artist, Chikanobu specialized in woodblock prints that blended traditional techniques with contemporary subjects, often portraying court life, historical events, and the shifting social landscape. This diptych, rendered in ink and color on paper, forms part of an album exploring scenes at Chiyoda Castle—also known as Edo Castle—the historic seat of the Tokugawa shogunate and later t...
About the Artist
Yōshū (Hashimoto) Chikanobu · 1838–1912
Toyohara Chikanobu, born Hashimoto Naoyoshi in 1838 in Echigo Province (modern Niigata Prefecture), emerged as one of the last great ukiyo-e masters during Japan's Meiji era. The son of a low-ranking samurai retainer to the Sakakibara clan, he trained initially in the Kanō school of painting before turning to ukiyo-e printmaking. He studied under a disciple of Keisai Eisen, then joined the studio ...