Ehon shiki no hana 絵本四季乃花

FSC-GR-780.325.1-2

Commentary by Julie Nelson Davis

Posted July 13, 2017

In this two-volume title Utamaro presents pictures of beautiful women enjoying diversions appropriate for the four seasons. Volume 1 has scenes from spring and summer, while volume 2 has examples from autumn and winter. The book’s title may be translated as Picture-book: Flowers of the Four Seasons, comparing the beauties presented as the “flowers” shown in the illustrations. The images of women are framed in each of the two volumes with naturalistic rendition of flowers for the seasons represented. The golden blossoms of the kerria (yamabuki) of spring begins the sequence for volume 1, with the purple blooms of the iris seen at its close; autumn is signaled by chrysanthemums and winter by narcissus and wild chrysanthemum. The association between beautiful women and flowers was not new here; it was a long-standing trope frequently used in Japanese and Chinese art. Additional botanic motifs are included in each composition, as would be appropriate for the events depicted. They appear within the setting as arrangements and potted plants, as designs on fans, kimono, or paintings, or as part of the larger landscape.

As Utamaro and other ukiyo-e artists did so often in books with beautiful women as their topic, this title includes figures from a variety of social classes from the period, such as high-ranking women (daimyo rank), merchant wives, courtesans, and geisha. Throughout the book the illustrations take what have, by this period, become familiar themes—playing shuttledore and battlecock at the New Year, traveling to the countryside to view maple leaves, and others—and were often presented in ukiyo-e. Utamaro became well known for these kinds of illustrations, and many of the scenes in this title echo other of his compositions. For instance, the view of a group of women crossing a bridge (pp. 14–15 on the website) recalls a similar arrangement in his six-panel print from 1794–1795 (see the British Museum example, 1918,0705,0.1-3). Some compositions likewise seem to reference those made by earlier ukiyo-e artists. Astute viewers would have recognized these as alluding to known precedents, now updated for a new generation of viewers.

The end of volume 2 lists a selection of publisher Izumiya Ichibē’s current shop offerings. There the titles are distinguished according to type as “warrior pictures” (musha-e 武者絵) and ukiyo-e, with some described as printed in color (saishiki-zuri 彩色摺). This title is also listed as ukiyo-e in color (saishiki ukiyo-e 彩色浮世絵) in the back matter.

The Izumiya publishing house was active in Edo from 1686 and remained in operation until 1886. [1] The shop was known as a famous place (meisho) in the city and isillustratedin the Tōkaidō meisho zue (Famous places on the Tōkaidō illustrated), from 1797 (see FSC-GR-780.851.1-6, vol. 6, pp. 150–51 on the website).

The Pulverer copy includes the distinctive red square “LG” seal of the French collector Louis Gonse (1846–1912) (see the inside of both front covers, lower right). This work is in excellent condition with bright fresh colors, exhibiting a little wear at the lower corners.

Selected readings:

Asano Shūgō and Timothy Clark, The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro, 2 vols. (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun; London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1995), entry 484.

Copies in other collections:

Art Institute of Chicago

British Museum, London

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

National Diet Library, Tokyo

Ōta Memorial Museum of Art, Tokyo

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

[1] Andreas Marks, Japanese Woodblock Prints: Artists, Publishers and Masterworks: 1680–1900 (Tokyo: Tuttle, 2010), 208.