Mr Monkey spent quite some time admiring the work of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), one of the greatest Japanese printmakers. He thoroughly enjoyed looking at prints of samurai, heroes, actors, women, landscapes and fantastic beasts and finding out how the prints were made.
You can read about the exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts website.
Photography wasn't allowed inside the exhibition, so Mr Monkey is pictured here in front of a print of Sanada Kihei Masayuki, sixteen years, first time in battle from the series One Hundred Heroic Generals in Battle at Kawanakajima, Shinano Province and Fashionable Octopus Games from the exhibition catalogue.
Copyright Rik Shepherd and Mr Monkey.