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A Young Boy Studying from the series Little Child's Pictures for Home Entertainment

Picture of Mitsui Group's Western-style Three Story House at Surugacho, Tokyo

Japanese Color Woodblock Print 

A Young Boy Studying 勉強する童男

from the series Little Child's Pictures for

Home Entertainment 

attributed to Utagawa Kuniteru II, 1873

Picture of Mitsui Group's Western-style Three Story House at Surugacho, Tokyo

IHL Cat. #2261

About This Print

From a set of twenty-eight educational prints issued in 1873 by the Ministry of Education (Monbushō) which show examples of children's good and bad behavior.  In this print a young boy is dutifully studying in his parents open-air store which advertises rice crackers with salt 塩せんべい while other young boys are playing. A gentleman walking buy notes the boys good behavior.

Ministry of Education Full-Color Woodblock Prints
The newly formed Ministry of Education issued full-color woodblock prints for childhood education between 1873 and 1885.  In addition to prints issued by the Ministry, color woodblock educational prints were also issued by private publishers, such as those of the series Brocade Pictures for Moral Education (錦絵修身談 Nishiki-e shūshindan), a collaborative effort of the artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), his students and the Tokyo publishing house Fukyūsha, issued in 1883 and 1884.

For more information on the color woodblock prints issued by the Ministry of Education see the article Educational Color Woodblock Prints (issued by the Ministry of Education) on this site.

Print Details

 IHL Catalog
 #2261
 Title or Description A Young Boy Studying 勉強する童男 Benkyō suru warabe
 Series from a series of educational prints variously identified in English as Little Child's Pictures for Home Entertainment and Pedagogic Brocade Prints
 Artist Utagawa Kuniteru II (1830-1874) [attributed to the school of]
 Signature unsigned but attributed to 曜齋國輝 Yōsai Kuniteru (an artist name of Utagawa Kunteru II) by the National Diet Library; to 歌川, 国輝(2代目 1830-1874) Utagawa Kuniteru II by the University of Tsukuba Library and Utagawa Kuniteru II by the Honolulu Museum of Art
 Seal of the Artist none
 Publication Date
 1873
 Publisher published by the Ministry of Education (Monbushō 文部省)
 Impression excellent
 Colors fair - fading
 Condition fair -  wrinkling, soiling, not backed, toning
 Genre ukiyo-e; kyōiku nishikie [full-color educational prints]
 Miscellaneous   
 Format ōban
 H x W Paper 
 14 5/16 x 9 5/8 in. (36.4 x 24.4 cm)
 H x W Image 13 3/8 x 8 7/8 in. (34 x 22.5 cm)
 Literature 

 Collections This Print
 Tokyo Metropolitan Library 086-6(39); National Diet Library 本別9-25; University of Tsukuba Library; Kumon Museum of Children's Ukiyo-e; Honolulu Museum of Art 31897.21National Institute of Japanese Literature
last revision:
4/1/2020 created