Picture Album by Old Man Maruyama 1837

This is a page from Picture Album by Old Man Maruyama, made by Maruyama Ōkyo in Japan sometime in the late 18th century. It is a woodblock print depicting two women in boats amidst lotus plants. Ōkyo was a leading figure in the development of a new naturalistic style of Japanese painting. He was trained in the Kano school, which was supported by the dominant Tokugawa shogunate, but he introduced Western perspective into his work. His naturalism had a social dimension. Ōkyo worked for wealthy merchants rather than the shogunate, and moved the focus of painting away from traditional displays of power. The lotus plant may be symbolic of purity, but here the figures are secular and set in an everyday landscape. This album represents the development of a new artistic institution, away from the traditional art establishment. To understand Ōkyo fully, we need to understand the economic and social conditions of Kyoto at the time and how the politics of the Tokugawa shogunate was reflected in its art.