• くもん子ども浮世絵ミュージアム
  • くもん子ども浮世絵ミュージアム
  • くもん子ども浮世絵ミュージアム
  • くもん子ども浮世絵ミュージアム
  • くもん子ども浮世絵ミュージアム

Kumon Museum of Children‘s Ukiyo-e

Having been inspired by the French historian Philippe Ariès, who pursued the study of children in medieval Europe using paintings from that period, Kumon Institute of Education started building a collection and conducting research into Children’s Ukiyo-e in 1986. We at Kumon currently have 3,200 cultural and historical artifacts related to children of the Edo period, including ukiyo-e depicting children. In the digital archive "Kumon Museum of Children’s Ukiyo-e" approximately 1,800 ukiyo-e woodblock prints from our collection are stored.
Depicted are daily life of children playing in various seasonal events, tender moments involving children, and mothers attentively taking care of their children—the prints vividly portray scenes of children being cherished and raised by family and people in the community under the concept of “children are riches” in the Edo period. Enjoy the culture of children depicted in Children’s Ukiyo-e.

Acknowledgement (titles omitted)

[Commentary] 
Nakajo Masataka, President of the Research Group of Children’s Culture in the Edo Period/A member of the International Ukiyo-e Society
Fujisawa Murasaki, Ph.D. at Kokugakuin University of Faculty of Letters / A Permanent Director of the International Ukiyo－e Society
[Script modification*] 
Koizumi Yoshinaga, Instructor at the Faculty of Letters, Hosei University/Scholar of Oraimono (textbooks in the Edo period)
*Script modification: Alteration of cursive letters in the print into block letters for easy reading.
[Photography] 
Fukuda Fumio
[Photograph of the production process of ukiyo-e] 
The Adachi Institute of Woodcut Prints

References

  • The Visual Encyclopendia of Ukiyoe/Shinsei Publishing Co., Ltd.
  • Basics of Understanding Ukiyo-e/Shibundo Publishing
  • Children in the Edo Period found in Ukiyo-e/Shogakukan
  • Children of the Edo Period as Seen in Ukiyoe/Kumon Publishing Co., Ltd.
  • Kumon Ukiyo-e Collection – 100 Scenes of Children in the Edo Period/Kawade Shobo Shinsha
  • Kumon Ukiyo-e Collection – 100 Scenes of Mothers and Children; Revival of the Child-rearing Methods of the Edo period/Kawade Shobo Shinsha