Poet Benno Naishi

Catalog note / 解説

This print was conserved with the support of the Robert F. Lange Foundation. During the Meiji period, a new genre of woodblock prints emerged that consisted of single-sheet illustrations (for popular novels). Since they resembled a mouth when unfolded from inside the book, they were called kuchi-e or "mouth pictures." Kuchi-e mostly accompanied romantic stories, and consequently they reveal a softer, more lyrical style than their ukiyo-e predecessors from the end of the Edo period. Although Takeuchi Keishü was not a professional kuchi-e artist, he became well known for his kuchi-e produced to illustrate the novels of Ozaki Köyö (1867-1903). In this print Keishü portrays the court lady and p…