Spring Landscape: Cherry Blossoms at Yoshino
Artist
Reizei Tamechika
(Japanese, 1823–1864)
DateEdo Period (1603-1867)
MediumHanging scroll: ink and colors on silk
Dimensions37 3/4 x 16 3/8 inches (95.9 x 41.6 cm)
CultureJapan
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineAcquired through the George and Mary Rockwell Fund
Terms
- Paintings
- Landscape
- Scroll
- Hanging scroll: ink and colors
- Bodies of water
- Cherry trees
- Courtiers
- Flowers
- Inscriptions
- Landscapes
- Men
- Mountains
- Seas
- Seasons
- Servants
- Spring
- Swords
- Waves
- Silk
- Japanese
Object number79.020.004 a
Label CopyReizei Tamechika’s pair of landscapes are examples of the revival of yamato-e, the style of Japanese painting that evokes classical Japanese themes and places. Here the artist depicts places of seasonal scenic beauty in Japan: on the right is Mount Yoshino, admired for its mountain cherry trees that blossom in spring, while on the left is the Tatsuta River and its myriad maple trees that turn brilliant red in the autumn.
A poet admires each scene, thus recalling famous poems about these locations. Mount Yoshino’s cherry blossoms inspired the poet Saigyo (1118-1190) to write this lyric:
Yoshino Mountain
Blossoms tumbled to the foot
Of trees, fastening
My heart there with them…
Waiting still for my return
-trans. William LaFleur
The maple trees along the Tatsuta River were the subject of this poem by Ariwara no Narihira (825-880) from episode 106 of the Tales of Ise:
Unheard of
Even in the age
Of the mighty gods—
These deep crimson splashes
Dyed in Tatsuta’s waters
-trans. Helen McCullough
Collections
late 18th century
