megane-e

{{short description|Japanese woodblock prints}}

{{Use Canadian English|date=May 2016}}

{{Italic title|reason=:Category:Japanese words and phrases}}

File:Harunobu Guckspiegel.jpg, {{circa|1760s}}]]

In Japanese art, a {{transl|ja|megane-e}} ({{lang|ja|眼鏡絵}}, 'optique picture') is a print designed using graphical perspective techniques and viewed through a convex lens to produce a three-dimensional effect.{{sfn|Fujii|2004|p=80}} The term derives from the French {{lang|fr|vue d'optique}}. The device used to view them was called an {{transl|ja|Oranda megane}} ({{lang|ja|和蘭眼鏡}}, 'Dutch glasses') or {{transl|ja|nozoki megane}} ({{lang|ja|覗き眼鏡}}, 'peeping glasses'),{{sfn|Screech|2002|p=99}} and the pictures were also known as {{transl|ja|karakuri-e}} ({{lang|ja|繰絵}}, 'tricky picture').

Perspective boxes first appeared in Renaissance Europe and were popular until superseded by the stereoscope in the mid-19th century.{{sfn|Fujii|2004|pp=80–81}} The Dutch brought the first such device to Japan in the 1640s as a gift to the shōgun. The devices became popular in Japan only after the Chinese popularized them in Japan{{sfn|Leibsohn|Peterson|2012|p=45}} about 1758,{{sfn|Fujii|2004|p=81}} after which they began to influence Japanese artists.{{sfn|Leibsohn|Peterson|2012|p=45}}

The artist Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–95) made serious study of imported perspective techniques and applied them to his painting. He gained an interest in making ukiyo-e prints through the artist Utagawa Toyoharu, who produced {{transl|ja|uki-e}} 'floating pictures' using linear perspective techniques. Ōkyo began making {{transl|ja|uki-e}} prints for viewing through a convex lens: {{transl|ja|megane-e}}.{{sfn|Fujii|2004|p=81}} Ōkyo later dismissed his {{transl|ja|megane-e}}, perhaps because their subjects were of kabuki and the pleasure quarters and thus considered of low artistic value.{{sfn|North|2010|p=177}} Prints by artists such as Utamaro and Masanobu depict people enjoying {{transl|ja|megane-e}}.{{sfn|Fujii|2004|p=82}}