White-Naped Crane and Asters (Shion Ni Manazuru)
Artist
Utagawa Hiroshige I 歌川 広重
(Japanese, 1797–1858)
Dateearly 1830s
Mediumwoodblock print; ink and color on paper; chu-tanzaku
Dimensions37.5 x 12.7 cm (14 3/4 x 5 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Markingspublisher's mark: Kawasho (Kawaguchiya Shozo)
Credit LineJohn Chandler Bancroft Collection
Object number1901.59.1502
Descriptionbird: white-naped Crane (Grus vipio); flower:Asters or Michaelmas daisy (Aster novae belgii); poem: shichigon-zekku (4 lines, each with 7 chinese characters)Label TextWhite-naped Cranes (manazuru) breed in eastern Russia and China from April to June and migrate south to North and South Korea and the southern Japanese island of Kyushu for the autumn-winter season. As mentioned in the poem, this crane, moving through the asters (shion), is startled during its hunt for water-chestnuts by the piercing cries of seagulls and wild geese flying over the inlet and the river valley blanketed with frost. The blossoms, foliage and dried grass are rendered in a painterly style without black outlines (musen-zuri), in autumnal shades of green, blue, light brown and grey. The white-naped crane can be identified by the exposed red skin of its face edged with black and the dark grey stripe that extends up the side of its white neck in a pointed line. Hiroshige also shows how the bluish-gray plumage grows pale toward the back, ending in elongated feathers that cover the tail.ProvenanceJohn Bancroft Collection
On View
Not on view
Utagawa Hiroshige I 歌川 広重
mid-1830s
Chinese
19th century, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
