Stork, Sun, and Pine

Stork, Sun, and Pine is a vertical color woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige II, dated to the early Bunkyū or Genji era and held by the Cleveland Museum of Art (accession 1920.275). The composition combines three of the most powerful auspicious motifs in East Asian visual culture: the crane or stork (tsuru), an emblem of longevity associated with the Daoist immortals; the rising or setting sun (hi), an emblem of imperial authority and renewal; and the old pine (matsu), an emblem of endurance and marital fidelity celebrated in the Noh play Takasago and in the kachō-e tradition. The grouping was a standard subject for New Year and birthday compositions throughout the Edo period and was particularly favored in [kakemono-e](/glossary/kakemono-e) — vertical prints intended to be hung in the same way as a hanging-scroll painting. Hiroshige II's design uses the long vertical sheet to set the white silhouette of the stork against the red disc of the sun, with the pine branch arching across the upper register. The Cleveland impression is one of the substantial holdings of Hiroshige II prints in American institutions, given by Ralph King in 1920 and now available under a CC0 open-access license.