By Lisa Hix — On December 7, 1941, Imperial Japanese war planes bombed an unsuspecting American naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawai‘i, killing 2,403 Americans and destroying 188 aircraft. The next day, the U.S. Congress declared war on Japan, bringing the United States into World War II, which had been raging since 1939. "When the powers that be take everything away from you, the only thing left is your own creative expression, what you have in your mind." Right away, U.S. authorities in California,...

Epic Ink: How Japanese Warrior Prints Popularized the Full-Body Tattoo

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — In the late 1820s, when artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi debuted his stunning new series of warrior prints, Japanese culture was well into a period of flux. Since around 1615, after the ruling Tokugawa family established their headquarters in Edo (the former name for Tokyo), the country had been set on a course of rapid urbanization and isolation from the global order. The private wealth of Japan's thriving merchant class fueled the emergence of the so-called Floating World—shadowy urban districts...

Sex and Suffering: The Tragic Life of the Courtesan in Japan's Floating World

By Lisa Hix — It’s difficult to get a window into the world of Edo-Period Japanese prostitutes without the gauzy romantic filter of the male gaze. The artworks in the new San Francisco Asian Art Museum exhibition, “Seduction: Japan’s Floating World,” were made by men for men, the patrons of the Yoshiwara pleasure district outside of Edo, which is now known as Tokyo. Every little detail of Yoshiwara—from the décor and fashion, to the delicacies served at teahouses, to the talents of courtesans, both sexual...

Mysterious Railway Posters Depict the Dreamy Allure of Deco-Era Japan

By Ben Marks — As an appraiser on Antiques Roadshow and a consultant to Heritage Auction Galleries, Rudy Franchi is highly sought for his opinion on posters, from propaganda sheets made during World War I and World War II to travel posters printed for the Southern Pacific Railroad and London Underground. In fact, Franchi’s been a professional purveyor of mass-produced printed art since 1970, when he and his wife, Barbara, opened The Nostalgia Factory, whose specialty was movie posters. Which may explain...

The Folklore and Fashion of Japanese Netsuke

By Maribeth Keane and Ben Marks — When men wore kimono in the 17th century, they had hanging containers and pouches called sagemono and stacked containers called inrō in which to carry small personal items. The containers hung by a cord that was attached to a small carving which was slipped underneath the kimono sash at the hip. This carving was called a netsuke and its mass would prevent the cord of the hanging container from slipping out from beneath the sash. Initially, the container cords were tied to small readily...