Object Details
Artist
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797-1858)
Label
Like Hokusai, Hiroshige produced a large number of striking prints of natural subjects, including animals. Here bats, auspicious symbols in China and Japan, are rendered in black ink in a simple composition that creates a striking, abstract design. Color is restricted to black, gray, and blue, and a quarter circle of unprinted paper represents the full moon. To the lower right, pilings on an embankment are rendered as wide brushstrokes of black ink. The replication of brushstrokes without outline is a striking feature of this print, which also has a seventeen-syllable haiku (hokku) inscribed in cursive calligraphy:
Bats
living in darkness,
the color of their wings.
Collection
National Museum of Asian Art Collection
Exhibition History
Masterful Illusions: Japanese Prints from the Anne van Biema Collection (September 15, 2002 to January 9, 2003)
Credit Line
The Anne van Biema Collection
Date
ca. mid 1830s
Period
Edo period
Accession Number
S2004.3.221
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Print
Medium
Ink and color on paper
Dimensions
H x W (overall): 26.4 x 12.5 cm (10 3/8 x 4 15/16 in)
Origin
Japan
Related Online Resources
Google Arts & Culture
See more items in
National Museum of Asian Art
Data Source
National Museum of Asian Art
Topic
Edo period (1615 - 1868)
moon
bat
poetry
Japan
haiku
ukiyo-e
Japanese Art
Anne van Biema collection
Link to Original Record
Record ID
fsg_S2004.3.221