有機會參觀芝加哥大學日本明治的藝術特展跟講座，用藝術的角度了解時代的變遷，文化的影響，以前從教科書上知道明治維新，是一個門户開放，接受西方化跟科技的改革，讓日本成為世界強國。

明治時代指的是日本歷史上,從 1868 年到 1912 年明治天皇在位的時期。

這次展覽在Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, IL. 展出130由美國公眾或私人的藝術收藏。

戰爭跟武器出現在很多的作品中，西化的音樂會，馬戲團，西式的衣著也在作品中跟日本文化的衝擊。同時依舊受中國文化影響，由作品中可看到日本從受西方強權威脅，到學習西方教育，工業革命後的日本的變化。

Mizuno Toshikata 1866-1908

Japanese Warships Fire on Enemy near Haiyang Island 1984
Polychrome woodblock print (nishiki-e)

Gōtō Shōzaburō

Active 1860–1910
Vase with Blossoming Flowers
1890s
Cloissoné (enamels over metal)

Utagawa Kunimasa IV (Kōchōrō)

1848–1920
Kabuki Performance of Chiarini’s Celebrated Circus
1896
Polychrome woodblock print (nishiki-e)

Toyohara Chikanobu

1838–1912
Concert of European Music
1889
Polychrome woodblock print (nishiki-e) triptych
Collection of David Libertson

Kaishū Active Meiji period

Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Its message is clear: a blindfolded Japanese woman is being led—or tempted—off a ledge by shabbily-dressed foreigner, who points to the right, presumably to the West. Behind him are ghostly apparitions reminiscent of gaki, or “hungry ghosts,” associated with Buddhist conceptions of hell.Above her flies a beautiful Japanese deity, gesturing in the opposite direction and urging the woman to return to the safety of the East. The deity’s flowing hair and posture resemble those of an apsara, a celestial musician who inhabits heaven in Hindu and Buddhist theology.

Kobayashi Kiyochika1847–1915

Great Fire of the Night of 2/11/1881, as Seen from Hisamatsu-chō 1891
Polychrome woodblock print (nishiki-e)
The Great Fire at Ryōgoku Drawn from Hamachō 1881
Publisher: Fukuda Kumajirō (active circa 1874–1898)
Polychrome woodblock print (nishiki-e)

Okioka Eizō and Asahi Gyokuzan

Active Meiji period; 1843–1923
The Monk Ikkyū circa 1892–1893 Wood

Furuya Kōrin 1875–1910 Shoreline at Dusk 1910

Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, gold, an mineral pigments on paper

Hashiguchi Gōyō,1880–1921

This Beauty (Kono bijin) Poster for Mitsukoshi,1911
Color lithograph
Darrel C. Karl Collection

In Japan, modern department stores rose to prominence in the late Meiji period by presenting themselves as centers not only of commerce but also of culture. This poster was based on an oil painting that was awarded first prize in a contest run by theMitsukoshi Department Store.

Utagawa Kunimasa III,1773–1810

Board Game (Sugoroku) of Looking Out from the Cloud-Topping Pavillion (Ryōunkaku), Asakusa Park
1890
Publisher: Fukuda Kumajirō (active circa 1874–1898)

Woodblock print with collage elements of medium-thick laid paper Minneapolis Institute of Art, Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection, 2015.79.235

At roughly 226 feet in height, the Ryōunkaku (Cloud-Surpassing Tower) was the tallest building in Tokyo from 1890, when it opened, until it was destroyed in the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923. It was designed by the Scottish professor, engineer, and oyatoi gaikokujin (foreign employee of the Meiji government) William K. Burton (1856–1899). Rising twelve stories above the Asakusa district, the building contained a variety of stores.

Utagawa Kunimasa IV (Kōchōrō)

1848–1920
The Balloonist: Palace on High People Are
Talking About 1891 Polychrome woodblock print (nishiki-e) triptych Collection of Roland L. Oliver

As part of the opening festivities for the twelve-story

Ryōunkaku Tower, the English balloonist Percival Spencer rose a reported 3,500 feet in a balloon in Ueno Park and, jumping out, parachuted to the ground.

Utagawa (Baidō) Kokunimasa

1874–1944 Hell Courtesan circa 1900 Pair of six-panel screens; ink, color, gold pigment and silver leaf on paper

(圖片提供:欣欣)