Timon Screech is Professor of the History of Art at SOAS, University of London. He is currently on research leave in Tokyo preparing a book on Nikko.

Half-length portrait of kabuki actor Kawarazaki Gonjuro as Ono no Yorikaze (detail; 1863), Utagawa Kunisada. Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum

The bawdy world of kabuki theatre

This elegant Japanese tradition with earthy origins has long provided Japanese printmakers with rewardingly risqué material

17 Mar 2022
Buildings at the main entrance to the Toshogu Shrine, Nikko (photo: 2016).

A pilgrimage to the shrines of the shoguns

The sacred mountainside site of Nikko comprises both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines – many of which have been restored to their 17th-century splendour

30 Nov 2020