Kuniyoshi artist

When it comes to ukiyo-e artists, what comes to mind may be the Edo period.

Yoshitoshi recordings

However, they were in fact active during the Meiji period as well. Mizuno Toshikata is one of the representative ukiyo-e artists of the Meiji period. He lived a short life of 43 years and was only active for a short period of time. The reason behind this is thought to be the fact that he was not active during the Edo period, which differs from the commonly perceived image of ukiyo-e artists.

On the other hand, his apprentice, Mizuno Toshikata, was born right before the Meiji Restoration, and the country had shifted to the Meiji period by the time he had grown out of his infancy. This made him the first ukiyo-e artist in ukiyo-e history to not know of the Edo period. The Meiji period was also a time when western civilization surged into the country, drastically changing the structure of society and values of people.

Toshi yoshi

The Meiji period was not an easy time to live in for Ukiyo-e artists who carried the now-forgotten Edo culture on their shoulders. Determined to live the Meiji period as an ukiyo-e artist, Mizuno Toshikata studied the art from the works of not only Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, but also many other artists that came before himself, and widened platforms for ukiyo-e artists of the Meiji period.

Furthermore, Mizuno Toshikata unfolded a series of activities to seek artistic value in ukiyo-e. Ukiyo-e was an art form that had continued to endeavor, contrive, and evolve for nearly years as the medium for the masses. He was able to prove how ukiyo-e artists could challenge themselves in a scene that competes for artistic values.

With this achievement, a path was paved for the ukiyo-e artists to survive in the Meiji period art scene. Mizuno Toshikata was an ukiyo-e artist who also played an active role in the art scene as a painter of nihonga Japanese-style painting. During his childhood, Japan was in a period of upheaval.