Butterfly (Chō); Dragonfly (Kagerō or Tonbo), from the Picture Book of Crawling Creatures (Ehon mushi erami)

Description

Kitagawa Utamaro’s butterfly and dragonfly page from Picture Book of Crawling Creatures brings delicate insects among large pink flowers and leafy stems. The different winged forms give the plant-filled design a small but lively movement, while calligraphy occupies the left-hand side. The visible middle seam reminds us that this natural scene was arranged across an open book.

Published in 1788, the ink-and-color design belongs to a volume pairing garden creatures with kyōka poems. Its subject invites close attention to forms that might otherwise pass unnoticed: a wing’s shape, a flower’s broad surface and the spacing between them. Utamaro makes these elements share a pictorial rhythm rather than isolating the insects as specimens. The page’s interest lies in that meeting of observed nature and a carefully composed reading experience.

Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Kitagawa Utamaro collection.