Japanese Woodblock-Printed Dioramas Tony Cole, Robert Tauxe and Ann Herring
The tradition of paper dioramas, theatre scenes and threedimensional paper models has existed in Europe for several centuries – even the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) enjoyed building paper theatre settings as a young boy.1 In Japan, too, there was a popular tradition of paper dioramas from the middle of the Edo period (1603–1868) until the early twentieth century.2 These standup displays, colourful and populated with two-dimensional figures, recreated in miniature a fabulous array of scenes from theatre, history, myth, scenic and urban landscapes, and daily life. They were illuminated with candles and displayed outdoors, presumably to the delight of passers-by during the summer evenings, and were likely marketed to the well-off townsfolk in the major urban centres of Osaka, Kyoto and Edo (present-day Tokyo).3
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Andon 110
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