Edutainment > Nobukazu Watanabe 1874-1944

Chikanobu Toyohara - Biography
Battle at Fujikawa - left panel
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Nobukazu Watanabe is a typical printmaker of the late Meiji period. The haydays of ukiyo-e - traditional Japanese woodblock prints - had been over. Photography and lithography replaced more and more the old craft. Publishers and artists tried to keep themselves afloat with print subjects of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, images from the imperial court and history scenes.

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Student of Toyohara Chikanobu

Nobukazu Watanbe was a student of Chikanobu Toyohara, an important woodblock printmaker of the Meiji period.

Woodblock Prints

Meiji Period
Battle at Fujikawa - middle panel
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The artistic output of Watanabe can be roughly grouped into the following subjects and series:

• Prints from the Sino-Japanese (1894/95) and Russo-Japanese (1904/05) wars.
• Scenes from the Imperial court. This was a kind of celebrity coverage. Emperor and empress Meiji were shown at public appearances. The emperor was popular among the common people and thus there was a good demand for such prints.
• Triptychs showing court ladies - much in the style of Chikanobu. These prints were obviously quite popular.
• Scenes from the history of Japan. Mainly events from the late 15th and early 16th century were popular - the period of the three Japanese unifiers and pacifiers. These themes had been banned by censorship for woodblock printmaker during the rule of the Tokugawa shoguns (until 1868).
• A landscape series "Shokoku Meisho Hyakkei" (One Hundred Famous places of Provinces).
• "Gensei Ju-ni ka Getsu no Uchi" (Modern Day Twelve Months). The series is kept a bit in the style of Moon, Snow and Flower, a successful series made by his teacher Chikanobu.

Gallery of Woodblock Prints by Nobukazu Watanabe

War Prints

Japanese War Prints
Sino-Japanese War - Naval Battle
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War Prints by Kiyochika Kobayashi
Naval Battle
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From the Imperial Court

Baido Hosai - Biography
Moon Viewing in a Garden
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Prints by Chikanobu
Emperor and Empress at Silver Wedding Anniversary
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One Hundred Famous Places of Provinces

The Meiji Print
Harima - One Hundred Famous Places of Provinces
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Modern Day Twelve Months

Meiji Era and Popular Prints
September - Modern Day Twelve Months
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Meiji Nationalism and Japanese Prints
January - Modern Day Twelve Months
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Dieter Wanczura
(August 2009)

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