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Introduction

An Abundance of Color

Spring Blossoms
March 5 - May 30, 2004

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Japanese were still using a traditional lunar calendar in which the new year began in early to mid-February. (This year the new lunar year began slightly earlier, on January 22, 2004, according to Western date-keeping). The first three months of the lunar calendar were designated as spring, so the season depicted in the prints in this exhibition falls somewhat earlier than spring in the northeastern United States.

In Japan, the flowers most closely identified with this season are the plum (ume), the peach (momo), and most of all, the cherry (sakura). In painting and printmaking, the plum is often snow-covered because it traditionally blooms at the turn of the lunar new year. The other flowers blossom later, at the height of spring.

The poetry on these prints creates expected associations, drawing upon a rich body of allusion that derives from both the Chinese and Japanese literary traditions. In composition, too, these images often draw upon classical Chinese subjects rendered in the uniquely Japanese style of “bird-and-flower” prints (kachō-e).

Selected Objects

Utagawa Hiroshige

Java Sparrow and Lily Magnolia (Mokuren ni bunchô), 1830's

Hasegawa Sadanobu II

Japanese Bush Warbler and Aronia (Kaido ni uguisu), 1850's

Utagawa Hiroshige

Blossoming Plum Branches (Ume), 1843-1847

Utagawa Hiroshige

Barn Swallows and Peach Blossoms under Full Moon (Tsukiyo momo ni tsubame), early 1830s

Utagawa Hiroshige

Bullfinch and blossoming aronia (Kaido ni uso), 1830's

Utagawa Hiroshige

Moon and Plum (Tsuki ni ume), 1843-1847

Yashima Gakutei

Caged Bird and Plum Branch (Ume ni torikago), 1820s

Utagawa Hiroshige

Great tit and wisteria (Fuji ni shijukara), 1830's

Katsushika Taito II

Finches and cherry blossoms (Sakura ni kimpara), 1830's

Kitagawa Utamaro II

Flower arrangement with red plum (Seika kobai), ca. 1810?

Nakamura Hōchū

Bush warbler and blossoming plum (Ume ni uguisu), late 1800s-early 1900s

Katsushika Hokusai

Bullfinch and weeping cherry (Uso shidarezakura), ca. 1834

After Katsushika Hokusai

Japanese wagtail and wisteria (Fuji sekirei), ca. 1832

Utagawa Hiroshige

Crested Bird and Flowering Crabapple (Kaidô ni kotori), 1830's

Utagawa Hiroshige

Long-tailed Bird and Peach Blossoms (Momo ni onagadori), 1830's

Utagawa Hiroshige

Bullfinch and Japanese Kerria (Yamabuki ni uso), late 1830's

Katsushika Hokusai

Hawk and Cherry Blossoms (Kaido ni taka), ca. 1834

Hasegawa Sadanobu II

Japanese Bush Warbler and Flowering Plum (Ume ni uguisu), 1850's

Toyohiro Utagawa

Hawk and white plum (Shiraume ni taka), 1810's

Utagawa Hiroshige

Great Tit and Mountain Cherry (Yamazakura ni shijûkara), 1840's

Kawamura Kihō, author

Kihō’s Sketchbook (Kihō gafu), 1827

Mori Kansai

Nuthatcher on a Flowering Cherry Tree, 1873

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

An Abundance of Color : Spring Blossoms

March 5 - May 30, 2004
View Checklist PDF

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