• Abstract print of lemon with two vases
  • Bandō Shūka I (坂東しうか) as Seigen ama (清玄尼) and Nakayama Bungorō II (中山文五郎) as the yakko Yodohira (奴淀平) from an untitled series of paired actors on poem slips (<i>tanzaku</i>)
  • Shirafuji Hikoshichirō (白藤彦七郎) from the <i>A Hundred Stories of Military Valour</i> (<i>Buyū hyaku den</i> - 武勇百傳)
  • Nakamura Utaemon IV as Danshichi Kurobei (団七九郎兵衛) - left panel of a diptych
  • <i>Three-stringed Shamisen</i> (三すじ) from the series Modern Fashions (<i>Imasugata</i> - いま姿)
  • Ichikawa Ichizō III as Tenjiku Tokubei (天竺徳兵衛) from the series <i>Matches for Thirty-six Selected Poems</i> (<i>Mitate sanjūrokkusen</i> - 見立三十六句撰) - image in the upper left is by Miyagi Gengyo
  • <i> Frontispiece portrait bust</i> from volume two of the <i>Edo nishiki Azuma Bunko</i> (江戸錦吾妻文庫)
  • Sawamura Sōjūrō III (沢村宗十郎) as Satsuma Gengobei (薩摩源五兵衛) in the play <i>Godairiki koi no fūjime</i> (五大力恋緘) - 'The Five Great Powers that Secure Love'
  • A traveling <i>bijin</i> on horseback pausing for a smoke
  • Matsumoto Kōshirō V (松本幸四郎) as the ghost of Akushichbyōei Kagekiyo (悪七兵衛景清) reflected in a mirror from the series <i>Modern Mirror of Actors</i> (<i>Yakusha Tosei Kagami</i> - 役者當世鏡)

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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