“Seduction” and “The Printer’s Eye”
Katsukawa Shunshoi
More than 200 artworks are now on exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco (February 20-May 10, 2015), an exploration of Japanese art and the world of desire (“ukiyo-e”—floating world). Elaborate scrolls, woodblock prints, sculptures, and kimonos are vivid examples of the transient and evanescent world of the senses, particularly the highly rarified courtesan culture for the extremely wealthy samurai and aristocratic classes.
As the Buddha famously observed, a lifespan is like writing in water, a moment of illusion and sensory experience soon disappearing. The...