FUTATSU NO CHO (two betterflies)

FUTATSU NO CHO — Two Butterflies — a kachō-ga composition in which two butterflies are depicted together, their flight or resting creating a paired composition. Two butterflies together suggested in Japanese art the happiness of a couple, their flight together a metaphor for shared life. Kimura's contemporary woodblock treatment likely renders the insects through bold graphic forms, the butterflies' wings simplified into the flat, patterned shapes that the woodblock medium handles with particular graphic force.