Children of the Meiji Era. At the School of Modernity (1868 - 1912).

With the establishment of the Meiji government in 1868, a wind of reform blew through Japanese society. This catalog sketches a portrait of Japanese children growing up at the end of the 19th century, a pivotal moment in Japan's history when unbridled modernization and openness to the West were transforming the face of the country. It explores new ways of learning and playing through prints depicting children, educational prints for learning, toy pictures for fun, and prints of stories and tales for dreaming. For many children of the Meiji era, these prints constituted their very first experience of play and study.