Cherry Blossoms in Spring, from the series "Choicest Odes upon Flowers of the Four Seasons (Shuku awase, shiki no hana)"
- Date:
- c. 1792
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; chuban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Cherry Blossoms in Spring, from the series Choicest Odes upon Flowers of the Four Seasons (Shuku awase, shiki no hana), is a 1787 Katsukawa Shuncho design at the Art Institute of Chicago that joins the season's most charged botanical motif to the series' broader programme of pairing flowers, verse, and [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga). Cherry blossoms had long been central to Japanese seasonal poetry, embodying both the radiant peak of spring and the keen awareness of impermanence that the brief bloom triggers. Katsukawa Shuncho uses the motif to enrich a figural composition in which elegantly dressed Edo women take on the role of seasonal celebrants. The print exemplifies the mature Tenmei era Edo bijin-ga style: tall, dignified figures of the kind associated with Torii Kiyonaga's influence are rendered through the linear discipline characteristic of the Katsukawa school. Shuncho had trained under Shunsho in that school, which was famous for kabuki actor prints, yet his commitment to bijin-ga is unmistakable in the Shuku awase, shiki no hana series. The cherry blossoms here are deployed as visual punctuation rather than dense ornament, allowing the women's kimono patterns to remain the main chromatic event. The verse paired with the image would have given literate Edo customers an additional layer of pleasure, reinforcing the print's appeal as both a fashion document and a literary keepsake. Held in Chicago, this Cherry Blossoms in Spring sheet is among the more accessible introductions to Katsukawa Shuncho's series work and to the late eighteenth-century Edo taste for poetry-aligned [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).
c. 1789/1801
Color woodblock print; oban triptych
About 1790
Color woodblock print; chūban
c. 1792
Color woodblock print; chuban
1780s
Color woodblock print; oban diptych
Cherry Blossoms in Spring, from the series "Choicest Odes upon Flowers of the Four Seasons (Shuku awase, shiki no hana)" was created by Katsukawa Shunchō (勝川春潮) in c. 1792.
Cherry Blossoms in Spring, from the series "Choicest Odes upon Flowers of the Four Seasons (Shuku awase, shiki no hana)" depicts birds & flowers and spring.
