Album of Meiji Period Prints

An accordion-fold album of Meiji-period woodblock prints — a format that presented multiple images in sequence while allowing the album to be displayed open at any point. Albums of this kind served both documentary and aesthetic purposes: they preserved a collection of related prints in organized sequence while creating a viewing experience that unfolded gradually as the album was opened. Chikanobu's Meiji-period subjects — court scenes, beautiful women, military events, Tokyo views — would populate such an album with the visual evidence of Japan's extraordinary transformation.