Shun (aka Taishun)

Shun (Taishun), by Toyohara Chikanobu, 1890. Woodblock print. The main scene shows a barefoot woman in a plaid robe with a purple underlayer and red trim, a blue cloth tied over her head, pausing beside a wooden hoe or spade under a flowering pink-blossomed tree beside a river; birds fly overhead against a pale blue sky, and small boats appear on the water in the distance. A separate horizontal panel above depicts a bearded man in a green robe carrying an axe over his shoulder, walking barefoot past a white cliff or rock formation and a distant mountain, with columns of Japanese text and a red seal at the right edge.