Water Scene

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Japanese prints, beautiful women are often cast in the roles of famous male heroes, enabling the artist both to create a more attractive image and to give an additional layer of meaning to a seemingly simple subject. Relaxing in a boat, this beauty actually parodies one of the strongmen, Katsusenba Oteiroku, of the Chinese novel of the fourteenth century, The 108 Heroes of the Suikoden, a tale of the revenge of a band of criminals against a corrupt government. Kuniyoshi, influenced by European models, often incorporated Western techniques in prints with nominally foreign themes. As this series relates to a Chinese story, the artist has contrasted the contemporary beauty to a landscape drawn in a foreign style, using Western perspective and stylized scenery (clouds and trees).

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art