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Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重

Iris (かきづばた Kakitsubata)

Maker

Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797–1858, b. in Edo, Japan)

Title

Iris (かきづばた Kakitsubata)
from the series Six Flowers (六花撰之内 Rokkasen no uchi)
Six flowers
Rokkasen no uchi

Period

Edo Period

Year

1856, 4th month

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

ink and color

Supports

Geography

Place Made: Japan

Dimensions

Uchiwa-e on horizontal aiban: 22.6 x 28.3 cm (8 7/8 x 11 1/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signature: 廣重画 Hiroshige ga (Pictured by Hiroshige)

Seals: Censor's seal: 改 aratame; Date seal: 辰四 Shinshi (Dragon 4 - 1856, 4th month)

Marks: On verso, at bottom left in pencil: 223

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Object Number

34.328

Type

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

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Public Domain 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 (1797–1858, b. in Edo, Japan)
Iris (かきづばた Kakitsubata); from the series Six Flowers (六花撰之内 Rokkasen no uchi); Six flowers; Rokkasen no uchi, 1856, 4th month
Polychrome woodblock print (nishiki-e)
Uchiwa-e on horizontal aiban: 22.6 x 28.3 cm (8 7/8 x 11 1/8 inches)
Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 34.328

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