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Japanese Meiji-era printmaking is similar in technique to prints of the traditional Ukiyo-e school, but with Western subject matter and lavish use of deep red pigment.
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The restoration of Emperor Meiji to power marked the beginning of Japan's Meiji Period (or Restoration) from 1868-1912. The Tokugawa Shogunate was overthrown, and Japan emerged as a modern nation. Emperor Meiji moved his court to Edo, which later became known as Tokyo.
After the opening of Japan to the West, there was an exaggerated embracing of Western art, end-grain engraving, photography and lithography. Newly founded universities established departments for Western art, called Western academic artists into the country as teachers and sent out students to study art in France and Italy. It meant the death of traditional printmaking, the age-old art of woodblock or Ukiyo-e prints.
The pendulum soon swung back the other way with the rise in nationalism, and the public again recognized the richness of the old tradition, even condemning Western art. The 20th century was marked by cooperation; art colleges offered departments for both Japanese and Western painting styles.
Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright acknowledged a significant debt to Japanese art, and was a respected connoisseur of "Ukiyo-e" (woodblock prints; literally, "pictures of the floating world"). Many Japanese artists migrated to Europe where they were influenced by French painting.
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