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Introduction

Spring Blossoms

Seasonal Japanese Prints
March 10 - June 6, 1999

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Japanese still used a lunar calendar in which the new year began in early to mid-February (in1999 the lunar new year began on February 16). The first three months of this calendar were designated as spring, thus the weather depicted in some of the prints on view is more wintry than might be expected for "spring" in the united States. In Japan, the flowers most closely identified with this season are the plum (ume), certain varieties of camellia (tsubaki), the peach (momo), and most of all, the cherry (sakura). The plum and camellias usually blossom at the beginning of the new year and so are traditionally depicted with a covering of snow. The peach and cherry flower later. The poems inscribed on the prints draw upon a rich tradition of allusion, derived from both Chinese and Japanese poetic literature and specific to each type of blossom. In composition, these images have evolved from classical Chinese painted subjects to become uniquely Japanese renditions of the "birds and flowers" (kacho-e) theme.

Selected Objects

Japanese, Japan Tokyo

Moon and plum, early 1900s

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

Katsushika Taito II

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

Nakamura Hōchū

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

Katsushika Hokusai

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

Utagawa Hiroshige

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

Utagawa Hiroshige

Parrot on a Flowering Branch (Kaidô ni inko), 1830's

Utagawa Hiroshige

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

Utagawa Hiroshige

Barn Swallows and Wisteria (Fuji ni tsubame), 1840's

Utagawa Hiroshige

Sparrow and winter camellias (Kantsubaki ni suzume), 1843-1847

Utagawa Hiroshige

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

Hasegawa Sadanobu II

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

Utagawa Hiroshige

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

More objects +

RISD Museum

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