Description
Large vine leaves and a hanging gourd give Kitagawa Utamaro’s Grasshopper and Cicada a substantial botanical setting. A small insect rests on the gourd, while grasses and a poem occupy the other side of the page. The design encourages the eye to move between broad leaves, slender growth and tiny living forms rather than concentrating on a single dominant object.
Published in 1788, the ink-and-color page comes from Ehon Mushi Erami, whose animal designs were accompanied by kyōka poetry. Utamaro’s subject makes a small scale of life pictorially important, encouraging attention to creatures that might otherwise be noticed only in passing. The pairing remains open to poetic association without requiring a fixed symbolic meaning. Its interest lies in the meeting of precise identities, modest forms and a book designed for attentive looking as well as reading.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Kitagawa Utamaro collection.
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