Album met voorbeelden van alle dingen - 2 1880

This is "Album met voorbeelden van alle dingen - 2" by Kobayashi Eitaku, an album of prints now housed in the Rijksmuseum. Eitaku lived through the final years of the Edo period and into the Meiji Restoration, a time of rapid modernization and social upheaval in Japan. At the time Eitaku made this, many artists struggled to reconcile traditional artistic practices with the new Western influences flooding the country. In his work, Eitaku sought to preserve classical Japanese aesthetics while incorporating modern techniques and themes. This album, with its promise of “all things,” reflects a desire to encompass a rapidly changing world within the framework of traditional Japanese art. Consider how Eitaku used traditional art to document the everyday and celebrate the ordinary, finding beauty and significance in the mundane. As you contemplate this album, reflect on how it resonates with your own experiences of cultural change and the search for identity in a globalized world.