Album met voorbeelden van alle dingen - 5 1882

Kobayashi Eitaku created this album of exemplar images sometime between 1843 and 1890. During the Meiji Restoration in Japan, traditional art forms were both celebrated and challenged by Western influences. Eitaku, working in this period of great change, situated himself between worlds. His album reflects both a reverence for established styles and a negotiation of new visual languages. As an artist, he was part of a society grappling with questions of national identity and cultural heritage amidst rapid modernization. Within these pages, we find a microcosm of these tensions. The album becomes a space where traditional motifs coexist with innovative approaches, mirroring the complex negotiations of identity and belonging in Meiji-era Japan. Eitaku sought to preserve and transmit cultural knowledge while also engaging with the present moment. You could consider what the role of an artist is during times of cultural transformation?