Picture of Large Elephant from India (Tenjiku hakurai dai zo no shashin), An Attraction at Ryogoku in the Eastern Capital (Toto Ryogoku mimono)
Medium
Color woodblock print; oban
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
32483
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
In 1863, during the final years of Japan's Edo period, Utagawaikazu captured a moment of public wonder with his color woodblock print *Picture of Large Elephant from (Tenjiku hak dai zo no shashin), An Attraction at Ryoku in the Eastern CapitalToto Ryogoku mimono)*. This oban-sized print (roughly 14 x 10 inches) depicts a massive elephant imported from India, drawing crowds to Ryogoku—a bustling entertainment district in Edo (modern Tokyo) famous for sumo tournaments, fireworks, and spectacles along the Sumida River. Elephants were extraordinarily rare in Japan, making this "dai zo" (great elephant) a sensation that highlighted growing curiosity about distant lands amid increasing foreign contacts. As a master of the Utagawa school and ukiyo-e tradition—"pictures of the floating world"—Yoshikazu excelled in vibrant, multi-block color printing techniques, layering inks for rich hues and precise details. His dynamic composition blends the elephant's imposing form with gawking spectators, evoking the era's ôban prints that documented news, theater, and novelties like exotic animals. This work reflects ukiyo-e's role in democratizing art, affordable to the masses via woodblocks. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Arts of Asia department, the print offers a vivid snapshot of 19th-century Japanese urban life, bridging everyday amusement with glimpses of the global exotic just before the Meiji era's transformations.
About the Artist
Utagawa Yoshikazu · 1845–1870
Utagawa Yoshikazu (active circa 1850–1870) was a Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print artist who came of age during one of the most dynamic periods in Japanese history — the twilight of the Edo period and the dawning of the Meiji era. Born and active in Edo (present-day Tokyo), he trained under the celebrated master Utagawa Kuniyoshi, one of the towering figures of the Utagawa school renowned for his ...