Currently not on view
Currently not on view
Mistakes often occurred in the rush to produce prints of the newly arrived Westerners. Here, the striped flag shown with the two Russian men is not the Russian flag. It may have been erroneously copied from an illustration of an Italian flag. Since Japanese artists could not read the captions that accompanied Western illustrations, such misunderstandings were common.
The text in the upper background of this print is a Japanese-Dutch vocabulary guide for words dealing with finance and coinage, seemingly unconnected to the figures who are identified as Russian. Dutch, however, was frequently used for translation because the Japanese had a history of engagement with Dutch merchants that spanned nearly three centuries, throughout the era of seclusion.
Currently not on view
Titles: | Russians (Two Russian Men with a Flag) From Japanese Translations of Barbarian Words |
Date: | 1863 |
Artists: | Utagawa Yoshitora (Japanese, 1836–1887) Published by Yamashiroya Jinbei |
Medium: | Color woodcut |
Dimensions: | Sheet (Ōban tate-e): 14 × 9 1/2 inches (35.6 × 24.1 cm) |
Classification: | Prints |
Credit Line: | Purchased with the Lola Downin Peck Fund and with funds contributed by Lessing J. Rosenwald, Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Hauslohner, Dr. Emanuel Wolff, the Derald and Janet Ruttenberg Foundation, Mrs. Edward G. Budd, Jr., and David P. Willis, 1968 |
Accession Number: | 1968-165-80 |
Geography: | Made in Japan, Asia |
Context: | Period: Edo Period (1615-1868) |
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Currently not on view