Cherry Blossom Viewing Party (Hanami no en)

Hanami no en (1862, "Cherry Blossom Viewing Party") is a Bakumatsu-period vertical ōban nishiki-e composition by Toyohara Kunichika held by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., as part of its Japanese prints and drawings collection. The print, surviving as two panels of a vertical ōban triptych (LoC LCCN 2002700040), depicts a lavish hanami (cherry-blossom-viewing) outing, possibly an elegant family portrait, with a man in a jacket bearing Western-style lapels and a golden dragon design and a woman holding a screen — both garments signed in the print with the personal names of identifiable Edo figures, indicating that the work was a custom commission as well as a market print. The composition belongs to the genji-e tradition of contemporary scenes reimagined in classical Heian costume and setting, and shows Kunichika at the height of his ability to combine portrait specificity with the decorative vocabulary of late-Edo seasonal prints. The Library of Congress copy was studied and catalogued by Nichibunken-sponsored Edo print specialists in 2005-06 and exhibited in The Floating World of Ukiyo-e: Shadows, Dreams and Substances (2001), where it appeared as plate 33 of the accompanying catalog by Sandy Kita.