CRANE AND IRISES

Crane and Irises is an Edo ukiyo-e composition attributed to Utagawa Hiroshige in the bird-and-flower (kacho-e) tradition that ran in parallel with his landscape print output. The image pairs two emblems of summer auspiciousness: the long-legged crane, a symbol of longevity and noble bearing, and the iris (kakitsubata), associated with the fifth-month Boys' Festival and with the famous poetic eight-bridge crossing at Yatsuhashi. Hiroshige composes the design around the white S-curve of the crane, balancing its angular silhouette against the upright stalks and broad blade-leaves of the iris below. The flowers are picked out in saturated purples and yellows, with delicate bokashi gradations in the petals that recall the soft printings of fine Edo workshop production. The kacho-e format gave Hiroshige room to indulge in the kind of decorative simplification that his landscapes often required him to suppress, and a sheet like this functions almost as an interior decoration, suitable for mounting as a hanging scroll. The Harvard Art Museums impression preserves the warm yellows of the crane's beak and the cool blues of the iris foliage that give the design its seasonal character.