Image

RISDM 34-328.tif
RISDM 34-328.tif
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Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重

Iris (Kakitsubata)

Description

Maker

Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (Japanese, 1797-1858, b. in Edo)

Title

Iris (Kakitsubata)
Six flowers
Rokkasen no uchi

Period

Edo (Japanese period)

Year

1856.4

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

color, ink

Supports

Geography

Place Made: Japan; Place Made: Tokyo

Dimensions

Image: 22.4 x 28.1 cm (8 13/16 x 11 1/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Inscription verso, bottom left in pencil: 223

Signature: Signed at left | Hiroshige ga

Seals: Censor's seal | aratame; date seal | 1856.4

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Object Number

34.328

Type

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Feathers, Flowers, Talons and Fangs
Power and Serenity in Japanese Nature Prints
Feb 02, 2007 – Jun 10, 2007
Summer Brilliance
Jun 14, 1996 – Sep 15, 1996
Bird-and-Flower Prints
Nature as Object and Ornament
Dec 26, 1992 – Feb 28, 1993
Fan-Shaped Bird and Flower Prints from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Collection
May 11, 1990 – Jun 30, 1990

Label copy

This extremely popular motif instantly calls to mind one of the most famous episodes from the prose-poetry classic, Tales of Ise. In episode 7, the poet Ariwara Narihira is forced to journey away from the capital. He stops with a few friends at a place called Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges) and, moved by the beauty of the irises growing there, composes the following poem:

Karagoromo/Kitsutsu narenishi/Tsuma shi areba/Harubaru kinuru/Tabi o shi zo omou.

I have a beloved wife,/Familiar as the skirt of a well-worn robe,/And so this distant journeying/Fills my heart with grief.

The men are so moved that they weep into their meal of parched rice until the rice swells with moisture.

(Translation by Helen C. McCullough in Tales of Ise, Stanford Univ. Press, 1968)

Hiroshige III
Apr 13, 1989 – Jun 23, 1989

Related

Related

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This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (Japanese, 1797-1858, b. in Edo)
Iris (Kakitsubata); Six flowers; Rokkasen no uchi, 1856.4
Polychrome woodblock print
Image: 22.4 x 28.1 cm (8 13/16 x 11 1/16 inches)
Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 34.328

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