Flowers, from the series "Snow, Moon, and Flowers of the Floating World (Ukiyo setsugekka)"

From the series Snow, Moon, and Flowers of the Floating World (Ukiyo setsugekka), this oban color woodblock print at the Art Institute of Chicago is the third member of the canonical triad of setsugekka (snow, moon, and flowers), the three subjects that had organized Japanese seasonal aesthetics since the classical period. The triad descends from a poem by Bai Juyi and entered Japanese poetry, then painting, then ukiyo-e as a structuring principle that allowed an artist to treat the full year through three seasonal subjects: winter snow, autumn moon, spring or summer flowers. Shuncho's series transposes the classical triad into the floating world (ukiyo), pairing each season with a moment of life in the pleasure quarters. The Flowers print represents the spring or early summer member of the triad, and the oban format permitted substantial figure development for the women whose seasonal kimono and floral attention carry the iconographic content of the subject.