47th Street and First Avenue

White flowers seem appropriate (thoughts of death) against the skeleton on a banner advertising an exhibit inside the Japan Society. This show of 19th-century woodblock prints (Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters) is spectacular and on until June 13. (You can view a few of the prints here in the online gallery.) The detailed prints are worth an up-close look, however, which is possible to do in this calm and uncrowded exhibit space. Some of the printing techniques—to depict whizzing bullets or falling rain or detailed textiles or hot coals spilling out of a brazier—were revelatory (to me, at least).