Image: Raizan, Geisha Looking Back at a Cuckoo (Hototogisu o mikaeru geisha)
The Ōta Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo's Jingumae district will devote its winter exhibition to ukiyo-e artists who have largely dropped out of view. "Ukiyo-e Artists You Don't Know" (Anata no shiranai ukiyoeshi-tachi) runs from Saturday 12 December 2026 to Sunday 17 January 2027. The museum will be closed from 24 December to 5 January.
According to the museum, the exhibition turns its attention to artists who are little known today and who were, in its words, buried by the passage of time. By bringing their work forward, the museum aims to convey the depth of the ukiyo-e world. Among the artists it cites are Mizuno Rochō and Utagawa Kunitora, together with two other lesser-known figures named in its schedule.
One work the museum has highlighted ahead of the opening is "Geisha Looking Back at a Cuckoo" (Hototogisu o mikaeru geisha) by Raizan, an artist believed to have studied with Katsushika Hokusai. In a post on its official account, the museum notes that the work shows a confident hand, yet only two works by Raizan, this one included, have been recorded, and nothing certain is known of the artist's life.
The exhibition sits within a season of ukiyo-e shows at the museum. It follows the current presentation built around Katsushika Ōi's "Yoshiwara Kōshi-saki no Zu" and the tradition of night scenes, on view until 6 December 2026, and precedes a further exhibition on the art history of the pleasure quarters, scheduled from 26 January to 28 March 2027. The museum advises that its programme may change without notice.
