• Men using a winch - a scene from the <i>Hokusai gifu</i> (北斎画譜)
  • Bandō Shūka I as the courtesan Shiraito (白糸) of the Hashimotoya (橋本屋) - this is the left-hand panel of a diptych
  • Bijin watching geese flying across the full moon -  from the series <i>Tōsei bijin soroe no uchi</i> 當盛美人揃之内 - 'A Collection of Modern Beauties'
  • Songokū (Sun Wukong) blows his fur into the air (<i>Gokū fuku ke</i> -  悟空吹毛) above Jō and Uba (Jō kumi[suru] Uba, 尉與姥)  from the  series <i>Sketches by Yoshitoshi</i> (<i>Yoshitoshi ryakuga</i> - 芳年 略画)
  • Departure (旅立ち Tabidati)
  • Standing <i>bijin</i> tying her <i>koshihimo</i> (腰紐) - with an <i>aizuri-e</i> background
  • Hayashi Tanshirō Taketoshi (林丹四郎武俊) from the series <i>Heroes of the Great Peace</i> (<i>Taiheiki eiyuden</i> - 太平記英勇傳)
  • Dietary Life Rules (<i>Inshoku yōjō kagami</i> - 飲食養生鑑)
  • Bandō Shūka I (初代坂東しうか) as the geisha Gaku no Kosan (げひしやがくの小さん) on the right and Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII (八代目市川団十郎) as Tobi-no-mono Omatsuri Kingorō (鳶の者於祭の金五良) on the left
  • Arashi Kichisaburō II (嵐吉三郎) as Prince Koretaka (惟喬親王) on the right and Nakamura Utaemon III (中村歌右衛門) as Katō Masakiyo (加藤正清)  on the left - a <i>mitate</i>

Welcome to The Lyon Collection!

Ukiyo-e Prints in the Mike Lyon Collection

Mike Lyon (artist b. 1951) was fortunate to have grown up familiar with Japanese prints. In his youth Lyon’s parents and grandparents displayed examples that certainly inspired his own artistic development. He began acquiring Japanese color woodcuts early in his career as an artist. The types of prints that feature most prominently among the many hundreds in Lyon's collection reflect the artist’s deep appreciation of the human figure and the expressive facial portrait. The vast majority of Japanese prints in the Lyon collection represent views of actors yakusha-e) and beautiful women (bijin-ga), and in particular the close-up, bust-length portraits of the same (okubi-e).

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