Genroku Era

Date1960

Maker Paul Horiuchi American, born Japan 1906 - 1999

Label TextJapan's Genroku era (1688-1704) is characterized by a spirit of exuberant playfulness and high-fashion urbanism, similar to that represented in woodblock prints and paintings called ukiyo-e, made in the same timeframe. Horiuchi's collage captures the relative abandon of that period with torn pieces of paper whose colors and shapes allude to the embroidered and resist-dyed kosode robes of the Genroku era, their distinctive design elements covering the entire surface of the kimono. The artist executed a much-enlarged version of this painting as a mural at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. The mural, made of Venetian glass in place of torn mulberry paper, is still in place at the Seattle Center.

Object number62.30

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Paul Horiuchi", March 9, 2000 - June 11, 2000 Yamanashi-ken, Japan, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, "Paul Horiuchi: Japanese Sensitivity Preserved in the Pacific Northwest", September 27, 2003 - November 24, 2003 (9/27/2003 - 11/24/2004) Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Northwest Traditions", June 29 - December 10, 1978. (06/29/1978 - 12/110/1978) Tacoma, Washington, Tacoma Art Museum, "Paul Horiuchi: Master of the Collage", November 11, 1987 - January 17, 1988. (11/19/1987 - 01/17/1988) Seattle, Washington, City of Seattle, 1971. (1971 - 1971) Olympia, Washington, State Capitol Museum, "Governor's Festival of Arts, Horiuchi Retrospective for Receipt to the Artist of the Governor's Award for 1970", 1970. (1970 - 1970) Eugene, Oregon, University of Oregon Museum of Art, and the Seattle Art Museum, "Paul Horiuchi: 50 Years of Painting", 1969. (1969 - 1969)Published ReferencesClark, Sarah, Charles Cowles and Martha Kingsbury. Northwest Traditions, ex. cat. Seattle, Washington: Seattle Art Museum, 1978. p. 105, ill. p. 34

Credit LineEugene Fuller Memorial Collection

Dimensions30 1/8 x 48 in. (76.5 x 121.9 cm) Overall h.: 37 13/16 in. Overall w.: 55 5/16 in.

MediumGouache on mulberry paper mounted on board