Prentenboek met voorbeelden van moedige en uitnemende daden 1840

Curator: Alright, let’s turn our attention to this fascinating 1840 mixed-media print now on display from the Rijksmuseum. It’s a Japanese “Prentenboek met voorbeelden van moedige en uitnemende daden," by Kita Busei. Editor: My initial impression? A sense of faded glory, honestly. That beautiful blue… it whispers stories, doesn't it? Each little volume, a secret waiting to be unlocked. The wear and tear practically beg you to leaf through them. Curator: Absolutely. "Mixed-media" is interesting here, pointing to a layering of printmaking, paper craft, watercolour, and colored pencil. Look at how the ink interacts with the paper. It tells us a great deal about print production in Japan at that time. Editor: Right, think about the hands involved! Preparing the paper, mixing the inks…it was all very tactile, intimate, and also communal I suspect. I can almost smell the paper and the ink – a fragrant world! And consider the act of repetitive printing; does the meaning shift? Curator: Well, the text highlights its purpose: A book showing models of courageous deeds! I’m wondering about its distribution – it wasn’t exactly mass produced. I bet that each of these images and examples would offer insight into the dominant values of society at that moment in time. Editor: I imagine families clustered around it. It would function as both entertainment and a moral compass, wouldn't it? It seems the artistry in service to something…bigger. What makes a hero, right? A question that’s always worth revisiting, especially through art that's itself a product of its culture. Curator: Thinking of its materiality... We're talking about an object, potentially handled, loved, passed down. But also mass produced so maybe a piece of ephemera designed for a particular social strata that needed guidance at a formative age. Editor: Precisely. In short, these little books manage to be so much more than ink on paper. Curator: Right. They’re echoes of hands and hearts and cultural codes... a beautiful package of all that, faded but resonant.