Cherry Blossoms
Artist
Kitagawa Utamaro I 喜多川 歌麿
(Japanese, early 1750s–1806)
Dateabout 1803
Mediumwoodblock print; ink and color on paper
DimensionsVertical ōban: 35.8 x 25.2 cm (14 1/8 x 9 15/16 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineJohn Chandler Bancroft Collection
Object number1901.59.540
Label TextThis print is one of three from Utamaro I’s series Flowers of Edo: Young Women Ballad Singers, which compares beauties and their shamisen (a traditional Japanese stringed instrument) to plants from the four seasons.
The young woman here is likened to cherry blossoms, and her features would have been considered the height of beauty in Utamaro I’s day. She prepares to play her instrument, tuning it while a book of musical instruction lays open behind her. Visual clues in her costume subtly underline her connections to these frothy spring flowers, including the pale pink folds peeking out from under her outmost kimono. There are also small sprigs of flowers in her hair.
On View
Not on viewCollections
Kitagawa Utamaro I 喜多川 歌麿
about 1794–1795
Kisegawa of the Matsubaya, [and attendants] Takeno, Sasano (Matsubaya uchi Kisegawa, Takeno, Sasano)
Kitagawa Utamaro I 喜多川 歌麿
about 1793
Kitagawa Utamaro I 喜多川 歌麿
about 1798–1800