shadow-casting

Though previous acquainted with the ukiyo-e master Utagawa Hiroshige (安藤 広重, 1797 – 1858), we were unfamiliar with this form of expression in his repertoire in the form of these “play prints” (omocha-e, 玩具絵—see also) in this series of diagrams on making shadows puppets—quite superior to these, which prefigured the magic lantern and all the development and exchange (many of the incremental steps superseded and quite forgotten despite the intermediate value of the artefacts, fashions and temporary obsessions) of technologies that led to film, animation and animé and whatever is to come. Much more to explore at the links above.