Beauties on a Veranda among Cherry Blossoms from which a Samurai is Departing
- Date:
- ca. 1800
- Medium:
- Triptych of woodblock prints; ink and color on paper
- Source:
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
This 1790 Metropolitan Museum of Art print by Utagawa Toyokuni depicts beauties on a veranda among cherry blossoms while a samurai departs the scene, a composition that combines bijin-ga, seasonal imagery, and narrative implication in the dense, suggestive manner characteristic of late-eighteenth-century Edo ukiyo-e. Cherry blossoms are the supreme seasonal motif of Japanese aesthetics, signifying beauty, transience, and emotional intensity, and their presence on this veranda anchors the print to early spring and the elite hanami (blossom-viewing) culture that flourished across Edo at this time. The departing samurai introduces a narrative element, suggesting a parting that the cherry blossoms simultaneously memorialize and amplify; the visual rhetoric is open enough to accommodate a range of stories, from amorous farewell to seasonal etiquette visit. As an early Toyokuni print, predating the full maturation of his yakusha-e dominance within the Utagawa school, the sheet shows the artist exploring multiple Edo ukiyo-e genres simultaneously, building the compositional fluency that would later anchor his actor portraiture. The figural arrangement on the veranda is balanced and rhythmic, with the women's elaborate kimono patterns providing the rich textile interest that contemporary collectors expected from bijin-ga. The blooming cherry tree and the architectural framing of the veranda demonstrate Toyokuni's command of pictorial setting at a formative stage of his career. For researchers tracing Utagawa Toyokuni's development and the broader history of cherry blossom imagery in Edo ukiyo-e, the print is a particularly clear early example.
early 1830s
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
1796
Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper
1769–1825
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Beauties on a Veranda among Cherry Blossoms from which a Samurai is Departing was created by Utagawa Toyokuni I (歌川豊国) in ca. 1800.
Beauties on a Veranda among Cherry Blossoms from which a Samurai is Departing depicts spring.
