Zeedieren

About this artwork

kleurenhoutsnede

Art Historical Context

"Zeedieren" (Sea Animals), a vibrant color woodcut by Japanese artist Kitao Masay (1764–1824), captures the fascinating world of marine life with meticulous detail and lively hues. Created during Masayoshi's active career roughly 1775 to 1824, this print exemplifies the ukiyo-e tradition—"pictures of the floating worlda popular genre in Edo-period Japan (1603–8) that celebrated everyday beauty, nature, and novelty. As a skilled pupil of ukiyo-e master Kitao Shigemasa, Masayoshi specialized in illustrations of plants, animals, and natural phenomena, often blending artistic flair with scientifi...

About the Artist

Kitao Masayoshi · 1761–1824

Kitao Masayoshi (1761–1824), who later took the name Kuwagata Keisai, was a pivotal figure in Japanese art whose influence extended from ukiyo-e printmaking to the development of instructional art manuals that would shape Japanese visual culture for generations. Born in Edo (present-day Tokyo) in 1761 and dying there in 1824, Masayoshi's career spanned a transformative period in Japanese art when ...