Mori Shunkei 森春渓

These two works appear to be scientific renderings, but they do not have the precise treatment typical of artist-entomologist drawings. Artfully arranged and detailed in the most colorful manner, the Dutch watercolor was probably based on entomological drawings and used as a study for paintings.

The Japanese print-strikingly similar to the Dutch print beside it-also draws on scientific illustrations. Its assortment and arrangement of butterflies indicates the artist’s knowledge of Western specimens and illustrations. In fact, Shunkei, like many others, were exposed to Dutch studies of nature that pervaded Japan since the 1600s. By drawing on these encyclopedic materials from the West, Japanese artists were able to reproduce similarly lifelike depictions.

This is the closing page of Mori Shunkei's Things Creeping under Hand. Compare it with the page to the right, which is taken from the Meiji-period edition, entitled Shunkei gafu.