Neo-Edo 423 : Time line

 

 2 May – 30 May 2026

 

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We are pleased to present Neo Edo 423: Timeline, a group exhibition by a collective of art directors known as the “Utagawa School,” widely recognized today. This exhibition is conceived as a sequel to last year’s widely acclaimed sci-fi epic, Kunichika: Neo Edo.

Based in the specific region known as Edo, these practitioners were active from the late Edo period through the early Meiji era, working alongside publishers, carvers, and printers who served as project initiators and collaborators.

This period is often described as an “age of upheaval.” Amid successive wars and political instability, strict shogunate publishing regulations limited the direct depiction of historical events and current affairs. Under such conditions—and at times facing punishment—they drew on real battles and incidents, incorporating them into their works in suggestive ways. In this sense, their images may be understood as “Based on a True Story,” developed through inventive and resourceful approaches.

These expressions were not merely the result of restriction. They were also driven by an ambition to meet—and surpass—the expectations of the public. Responding to a demand for novelty and surprise, publishers and makers expanded these images into exaggerated characterizations that seem as if they have leapt out of contemporary manga or animation.

At the same time, despite—or perhaps because of—this transitional moment, the techniques of multicolor woodblock printing reached their peak. Finely carved blocks and richly layered pigments, applied with luxurious precision, achieved a level of brilliance and density that is extremely difficult to reproduce today. This golden period is said to have lasted only around thirty years, or at most half a century.

Rather than presenting these works through individual artists or linear developments, this exhibition places them side by side as multiple, simultaneous practices. What emerges is not a fixed image of the past, but another Edo—one that continues to be reconfigured in the present.

Approximately 35 woodblock prints will be on view.

We invite you to experience a suspended, time-warping visual encounter in which “Edo” and the “future” intersect at high speed.

 

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Artists : 

Kunisada / Kuniyoshi / Yoshitsuya / Kyosai / Yoshiiku / Kunichika / Yoshifusa / Yoshitoshi

 

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About the Utagawa School

The Utagawa School refers to a major lineage of ukiyo-e artists active from the late Edo period into the Meiji era. Closely connected to the theater world, the school maintained a mutually beneficial relationship with actors and playhouses, producing portrait prints that functioned as powerful promotional media.

Beginning with Utagawa Toyoharu, who introduced Western perspective into woodblock printmaking, the lineage expanded through artists such as Toyokuni and Toyohiro. By the late Edo period, it included figures like Kunisada (also known as Toyokuni III), renowned for images of beauties; Kuniyoshi, known for warrior subjects; and Hiroshige, celebrated for landscapes.

Although the school remained highly influential into the Meiji period, the demand for such prints gradually declined with the rise of new technologies, including photography.

 

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