Hashimoto Chikanobu was known by several names, originally as Hashimoto Tadayoshi, then in accordance with naming practices of the day, he was later given his artist name of Chikanobu by his master Toyohara Kuichika. He would continue to be known as both Toyohara Chikanobu as well as Yoshu Chikanobu. Remembered mostly for his triptychs depicting the Imperial family, customs and manners of the changing Japan (as it became more westernized), and the overall political climate of the Meiji period, he was taught under the Utagawa masters Kuniyoushi and Kunisada, and of course with Toyohara Kunichika.

Beginning artistic activity during the Bunkyu era (1861-1864), he was a prolific woodblock artist, his work displaying a wide range of subjects most often of which were historic battles, kabuki actors, and women of the pleasure districts (all popular subjects for ukiyo-e artists). Due to his sumptuous representation of women, he was became quite well known for his depiction of fashion and trends of women, both traditional kimono and the increasingly popular western-style of clothing. In his works he often displayed changes and shifts in style and taste through the centuries, expanding his masterful representation beyond just clothes, displaying trends in coiffures and make-up. Of note, as well, are his depictions of the social and political shifts as Japan saw an end to the samurai culture and the rise of “Meiji modernity.”

Working in the oban tate-e vertical format like most of his contemporaries, he branched off frequently into diptychs (and, of course, his famous triptychs), though there are a large number of single panel prints done in series, similar to the more well known series’ of Hiroshige. Through analysis of his extensive body of works, scholar Dan McKee said that style in which Chikanobu painted was so divisive with itself that, “one might be have the suspicion that there were two Japanese printmakers using the same name...”¹

Much of Chikanobu’s earlier works were characterized by a distinctly Utagawa style, with their gaudy kabuki figures and heavy usage of red an purple, all typical of mid-late Kuichika paintings. By contrast, his genre works of the later portions of his career display a startlingly large amount of originality.  They are more subtly colored and differing in their approach to the materials, showing the artists progression towards bijin-ga prints that would become popular in the early twentieth century. Though his style never lost the deep sense of Japanese aesthetics and painting tradition, Chikanobu clearly showed a growing shift in the already rapidly changing social structure of Japan.

As an example, the means by which the artist handled the traditional landscape, taking mist and representing it with uncolored areas without lines, shows a traditional style of painting that dates back as far as the early 12^th century with Ma Yuan in China. The traditionalism in his works can hardly be argued, all the same, his depictions of Japanese bygone pastimes and culture are brought into stark contrast as he combined these traditional techniques with Western-influenced aesthetics of the 19^th century (Which McKee argues may be Victorian in origin).

   Overall it may be argued that Chikanobu was part of a growing trend among Japanese artists, a trend of being increasingly aware of their historical, cultural, and political heritage (simplified simply to an awareness of being Japanese artists). Many of Chikanobu’s works show a distinct purpose to display this newly achieved cosmopolitan understanding, and his series depicting the historical shifts in fashion, beauty, and tradition only tend to highly a keen grasp of the importance of these facets of life, even as they were falling away to make way for the growing industrialism brought on by Japan’s relations with the West.

This print  is "A Noble Lady and Her Attendants of the Tokugawa Era." In this triptych a noble lady sits in the center.  She is about to play the koto. The young lady waiting on the right gives the lady a message and the girl on the left ties the pouch of the plaectrums.

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