Talk by Frank Milner

There were six major 19th century Japanese woodblock print designers: Hokusai, Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi, Yoshitoshi, Kunisada and Kunichika.

Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900) was the last great 19th century designer of Japanese Kabuki and actor prints.  Seventy of his works, from the collection of Frank Milner, will be shown at the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight from 15 April to 4 September 2022.  The exhibition is a follow-up to the very successful Edo Pop show that National Museums Liverpool held at the Lady Lever Gallery in 2017.

Frank Milner gave an introductory lecture on the exhibition looking at how Kunichika and his publishers responded to a rapidly modernizing Japan and extended the bounds of hand printmaking to compete with the challenge of photography.