(Lobster and common hepatica) Possibly 1862

Asai Kōei made this image of a lobster and common hepatica using ink and color on paper. It is an interesting illustration of the natural world, but also of Japanese society and how it was changing in the late 19th century. In Japan, the late 1800s was a period of modernization and westernization. Artists started incorporating Western styles and techniques into their work, a move which reflected the changing social and cultural landscape. Kōei was a well-regarded artist who moved in institutional circles; he taught at the Kyoto Prefectural School of Painting and it is very likely that this print was influenced by its academic setting. The combination of traditional Japanese techniques with a Western-style subject matter reflects a tension between the old and the new. Close inspection and archival research could tell us a lot more about the ways that Japanese artists negotiated those tensions.