Sanokawa Mangiku
1718
Medium
paper
Dimensions
148; 265
About this artwork
height 265 mm
Art Historical Context
"Sanokawa Mangiku is a delicate artwork from 1718, created anonymously on paper and measuring a compact 265 mm in by 148 mm in width. This intimate scale suggests it may have been designed as an album leaf, handscroll section, or personal keepsake, common in Edo-period Japan (1603–1868), when such portable pieces allowed art lovers to savor beauty in private moments. Created during the vibrant Genroku era's aftermath, the work emerges from a time when ukiyo-e—the "pictures of the floating world"—captured the fleeting pleasures of urban life in cities like Edo (modern Tokyo). The title, evokin...
About the Artist
anonymous
In the vast tapestry of art history, "Anonymous" stands not as a singular individual but as a collective designation for countless unidentified creators whose works have endured across millennia. These artists, spanning prehistoric cave painters to medieval illuminators and folk craftsmen, produced the foundational layers of human visual culture. Prior to the Renaissance, when individual fame emer...