Kunisada III

Kunisada III
The Thirty-Six Immortal Poets, 1890
1788

A splendid Meiji-Period example of Ukiyo-e printing skills, the thirty-six prints which form this book display a perfection of technique in woodblock color-printing, after about one hundred and fifty years of endeavor. Viewed as the final period of Ukiyo-e art, this perfect state of preservation as a book, the images are astonishing. The subject of the thirty-six prints (each made from many different blocks) is no less intriguing—wholly traditional Japanese subject, thirty-six Immortal poets. Amazingly, there were thirty-six immortal women poets, and thirty-six immortal men poets. Here are the thirty-six women. Looking through the book one sees only geishas in their elaborate kimonos, in various forms of elegant activity; in the background of each are poems. As design and printing in the last phase of an old world, before modern Japan and Western taste prevailed, this is a flawless monument.

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