Summer, from the series "New Versions of Flowers of the Four Seasons (Shinpan furyu shiki no hana)"
- Date:
- c. 1767
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; chuban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Summer, from the series New Versions of Flowers of the Four Seasons (Shinpan furyu shiki no hana), a 1762 chuban print by Suzuki Harunobu in the Art Institute of Chicago, exemplifies the seasonal print sets that organized so much of Edo ukiyo-e production. The Four Seasons remained one of the most reliable framing devices in Japanese visual culture, ranging from courtly waka anthologies to popular calendars; Harunobu's 'new versions' brand explicitly markets the series as a contemporary refresh of a long tradition. In this Summer sheet, a beauty is associated with seasonal flora - perhaps morning glories, peonies, or hydrangeas, depending on the surviving impressions - and her dress, hairstyle, and surrounding details supply additional summer cues for an Edo viewer schooled to read such codes at a glance. Suzuki Harunobu integrates beauty and botany without making either the obvious subject: the figure is rendered in his trademark elongated chuban bijin-ga proportions, while the floral elements occupy the print's negative space as graphic accents rather than as illustrated botanical specimens. As with the rest of Harunobu's 1762 work, this sheet precedes the formal arrival of full-color nishiki-e in 1765 but already shows the spatial control and clean line that would soon define the new genre. The Art Institute's impression preserves Harunobu's careful articulation of summer's affective register - languor, fragrance, lengthening daylight - and demonstrates how Edo ukiyo-e printmakers managed to keep the canonical Four Seasons alive by keeping them stylish.
c. 1767/68
Color woodblock print; hashira-e
c. 1767/68
Color woodblock print; chuban
c. 1767/68
Color woodblock print; chuban
c. 1764/65
Color woodblock print; hosoban, mizu-e
Summer, from the series "New Versions of Flowers of the Four Seasons (Shinpan furyu shiki no hana)" was created by Suzuki Harunobu (鈴木春信) in c. 1767.
Summer, from the series "New Versions of Flowers of the Four Seasons (Shinpan furyu shiki no hana)" depicts birds & flowers and summer.
