Album of Birds and Flowers (Kacho-ga)
Kubota Tosui
Asian Art
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Japan exported large quantities of all types of objects, at a range of prices, to the West. Fashionable consumers purchased and displayed these objects in their homes. An item such as this fine album would have been prized not only for its exotic beauty but also for its sensitivity to the natural world, evident in the closely observed pictures of birds, insects, and plants.
MEDIUM
Album leaf, ink painting on silk
DATES
late 19th–early 20th century
PERIOD
Meiji Period
DIMENSIONS
9 1/4 x 8 3/4in. (23.5 x 22.2cm) each image
ACCESSION NUMBER
2001.123
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Thomas Colville
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Twelve rectangular leaves mounted in an album represent through images of nature the twelve months of the year. For images, see images\japan\paintings\tosui, as follows:
1. Three cranes - one flying; two standing - among bamboo.
2. Freshly blooming plum trees with three swimming tortoises.
3. Rose mallow with hovering butterfly.
4. Tree peony with butterfly.
5. Crawfish and carp (koi) swimming among lotus petals.
6. Praying mantis standing atop pomegranate plant and leechees.
7. Wading duck with fish and flowering river plants.
8. Crawfish and a school of carp (koi) with submerged branch.
9. Quail and bellflowers.
10. Sparrows and grasses.
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
RECORD COMPLETENESS
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