Object Image

雪月花 吉野

The most famous place in Japan for viewing cherry blossoms is Mount Yoshino in the Kii peninsula, far from Kyoto and Nara. Instead of the standard device of bands of mist separating the foreground from the background, here clusters of cherry blossoms hover in the middle ground. The other two prints in the series are Snowscape by the Sumida River and Moonlight on the Yodo River.

The signature, Saki no [or Zen no] Hokusai Iitsu hitsu, indicates that the print was made during Hokusai's Iitsu period (ca. 1820–33).

Credit: Henry L. Phillips Collection, Bequest of Henry L. Phillips, 1939...

c. 1833
Polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper
25.1 x 37.1cm
JP2923
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019

Where you'll find this

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Permanent collection