Picture Book of Crawling Creatures (The Insect Book) (Ehon mushi erami) 画本虫撰
Utamaro was a pupil of the Kanō school painter Toriyama Sekien (1712–1788). Each double-page illustration of insects and reptiles has a pair of kyōka—"comic poems on the feelings of love"—inspired by the images. Here, the kyōka involve an evening cicada and a spider:
Evening cicada, is it you who steals the right moment to fly into another's arms?
But you cry constantly like a poor soul living one day at a time.
A spider returning to his nest reminds me
Of a man furtively dragging his clothes and creeping up to a lady's boudoir.
Evening cicada, is it you who steals the right moment to fly into another's arms?
But you cry constantly like a poor soul living one day at a time.
A spider returning to his nest reminds me
Of a man furtively dragging his clothes and creeping up to a lady's boudoir.
Artwork Details
- 画本虫撰
- Title: Picture Book of Crawling Creatures (The Insect Book) (Ehon mushi erami) 画本虫撰
- Artist: Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿 (Japanese, ca. 1754–1806)
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: probably 1823 (later edition)
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: One from a set of two polychrome woodblock printed books; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions: Overall: 9 15/16 × 7 3/16 in. (25.2 × 18.3 cm)
- Classification: Illustrated Books
- Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1918
- Object Number: JIB44a
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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Kitagawa Utamaro
probably 1823 (later edition)
Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿
1792
Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿
1801, first month
Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿
1789, eighth month
Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿
1790, first month
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