A City of Consumption: The Woodblock Print Industry in Edo, Japan

Lecture in Carnegie Museum of Art Theater: 6—7 p.m.
Exhibition open, cash bar, and light refreshments: 7—8:30 p.m.

Open Hiroshige’s Tōkaidō Road, an exhibition of rarely-seen Japanese prints from Carnegie Museum of Art’s collection, in this evening devoted to the thriving print culture of Japan.

The city of Edo (Tokyo) was not only the largest city in the world by 1800, it was also a city with a rich commercial and artistic life. In this talk, Dr. Brenda Jordan will highlight one of the defining arts of this period in Japan—the industry of the colored woodblock print. Designed and produced by a collaborative process and sold to people from all walks of life, nineteenth century Japanese prints provide a window into Edo urban culture—what people thought was important, what they liked to do, and where their interests lay.

Dr. Brenda Jordan is the Director of the University of Pittsburgh national coordinating site for the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (NCTA) and the Japan Studies Coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies Center. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Kansas specializing in 19th Century Japanese art history.

This event is cosponsored by the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania.