Street of Ginza B Expansion

Street of Ginza B 

銀座 B

Artist
NAKAJIMA, Kiyoshi
中島 清之
Birth Year
1899
Death Year
1989
Date
1936 
Technique, Material, Format
color on paper, framed 
Dimension
118.8 x 93.2 cm 
Donor name
Mr. Nakajima Kiyoshi
Category
Nihonga (Japanese-style Painting) 
Inventory Number
82-JP-007 

Like Street of Ginza A, this work was based on more than 50 sketches made on the streets of Ginza. Nakajima Kiyoshi has depicted the cafe Monami, which was popular among literary scholars, on the left, and transplanted a fan shop on the right that was actually located elsewhere. Meanwhile, according to the original sketches, above this fan shop there was a beer hall, but in this picture its signboard has been omitted and the color and shape of a decorative window have been emphasized in its place. Both Street of Ginza A and Street of Ginza B convey the carefree sense of excitement associated with gin bura, a colloquial term for the then-popular pastime of walking around the streets of Ginza. But this was also the year of the February 26 Incident, an attempted coup d'état by a group of young army officers, and intimations of war were gradually impacting on people’s lives. The following year, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, and Ginza’s glamor quickly faded.
(UCHIYAMA Junko)

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