Two Court Ladies Admiring Cherry Blossoms

Two Court Ladies Admiring Cherry Blossoms, a [surimono](/glossary/surimono) of about 1820 by Yashima Gakutei in the Art Institute of Chicago, reaches back to the courtly aesthetic of the Heian period for its kyoka-e subject. Court ladies in long flowing robes paused beneath blossoming cherries had been a stock image of classical Japanese literature since the Tale of Genji, and by Gakutei's day the scene functioned as a kind of visual shorthand for refinement, miyabi, and the seasonal sensibility of the older waka tradition. In the surimono context, where prints were privately commissioned by poetry circles and printed in small luxury editions, that classical reference acquired a fresh purpose: the kyoka poems printed alongside the picture would have played their playful contemporary voice off the picture's stately historical flavor. Working within the Hokusai school under Katsushika Hokusai, Yashima Gakutei renders the figures with the elongated grace that characterized his [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), balancing them against carefully calibrated areas of blank paper and a sparing use of blossom pink. Deluxe printing techniques such as [karazuri](/glossary/karazuri) embossing of textile patterns and the use of metallic powders register the sheet's status as an object for connoisseurs. As an early-1820s surimono by Yashima Gakutei, the print shows how the Hokusai school turned the iconography of an older court culture into a vehicle for the very contemporary pleasures of kyoka-e.