Born into a well educated family, Michizane was a scholar, poet and politician during the Heian Period. He began his career as a scholar, and was also appointed to a variety of positions as a government official. As a result of his skill with written Chinese, he undertook a number of diplomatic offices; he was appointed ambassador to China in the 890s.

He also ran the school founded by his father, and was appointed Monjo Hakushi, the highest professorial office at Daigaku-ryō (the imperial university in Kyoto), which was considered to be the highest honor a historian could achieve.

His career rose and fell numerous times during his long career; in 866, he had been appointed governor of the Sanuki Province on Shikoku, the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. He finally died a lonely death in exile, after the Fujiwara, a leading family, became jealous of his influence and intrigued to have him banished in 901.

After his death, plague and drought spread, the Emperor's sons died in succession, the Imperial Palace's Great Audience Hall (Shishinden) was struck repeatedly by lightning, and the city experienced weeks of rainstorms and floods. Attributing this to the angry spirit of the exiled Sugawara, the imperial court built and dedicated a Shinto shrine to him in Kyoto, posthumously restoring his title and office.

Commoners came to revere him, regarding his spirit as a kami, and shrines dedicated to him were erected in a number of places; images of him are common in Japanese art.

On this one, the lower fan is decorated with a flowering yellow fukujuso (New Year's plant); the upper fan is decorated with a pattern of waves, and is inscribed with poems by two members of the group that commissioned the set of prints.

Ōgi-nagashi, the practice of floating fans on the water in a river, was introduced in the Muromachi Period, when the aristocracy make a favourite game out of doing so, and then composing a poem about the sensations they felt. The term later became the name for designs inspired by this practice.

This example lacks inscription in the title cartouche, and is therefore presumably a proof printing.

This print is a giga, or "joke picture", a longstanding tradition dating back to Kamakura handscrolls which portrayed a variety of animals in human roles.

This is a good example of the melding of simplicity, sophistication and boldness found in ukiyo-e. Hokushu achieved a three dimensional effect without the use of shadows, indicating layered fabric through the use of geometric angles and well placed diagonals.

Battledores were originally made for the game of Japanese shuttlecock, (hane), which dates to the Muromachi Period (1392-1573). They were usually made from paulownia wood (Japanese figwort tree), or cryptomeria (Japanese cedar). Although anyone can play battledore, today it is more common to see children in parks playing hane.

Kakemono-e such as this one were produced to replace or supplement the original hand-painted kakemono; presumably not all the population could afford hand-made art.

Note: For those who wish to examine a full-sized image of this print, one is available here.

Introduced in part as a response to sumptuary laws which limited the number of colours that could be used in a print, it also was commercially successful, in part because it became fashionable because of the Japanese fascination with new things.

The large facade on the far bank is that of the mansion of Arima, daimyō of Kurume (on the Southern main island of Kyushu). The large tower on the right is a fire-tower, from which watch was carefully kept for the fires which could devastate the closely packed, very flammable Japanese cities. It was reputed to be the highest in Edo, and was a well-known landmark, the subject of a children's song.

In the left-hand print, at the very left-hand edge is the top of the Zōjōji pagoda, the personal temple of the ruling Tokugawa family; this particular tower was the mausoleum of the second shogun, Hidetada, the son of the founder of the dynasty, Tokugawa Ieyasu. Sadly, the whole complex, one of the great sights of Tokyo, was destroyed in a bombing raid in May, 1945.

The woman on the left is preparing to play the koto, a 13-string zither, made of paulownia wood. It is plucked using picks on the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand (which you can see in this print if you examine it closely), while the left hand can be used to 'stop' strings to modify the pitch and tone.

The woman in the center holds a shamisen, a a 3-string lute, which can vary in length. Shamisen first became popular in the pleasure districts during the Edo Period, and at that time began to be used in Kaabuki and bunraku (puppet theatre) performances. Shamisen are made from one of a variety of woods, such as red sandalwood, and the head is covered with cat or dog skin. The pegs are traditionally made of ivory, and the strings are twisted silk. Traditional shamisen playing requires the player to be stiff and expressionless. She is holding a bachi, the plectrum used to play the shamisen.

The woman on the right holds a kokyu, the only Japanese stringed instrument played with a bow (which she is also holding). Supposedly based on a Chinese copy, it is now unique to Japan. Most kokyu have only three strings, but this one is one of the rare ones with four. At this point in time, the kokyu was an integral part of the three-piece sankyoku ensemble, along with the koto and shamisen, but now it has usually been replaced by another instrument, the shakuhachi, a Japanese end-blown flute, traditionally made out of bamboo.