SUZUKI HARUNOBU (1725-1770)
SUZUKI HARUNOBU (1725-1770)

Uzuki (The fourth month)

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SUZUKI HARUNOBU (1725-1770)
Uzuki (The fourth month)
Woodblock print, from the series Fuzoku shiki kasen (Popular poetic immortals of the four seasons), signed Suzuki Harunobu ga, published circa 1768-69
Vertical chuban: 11 ¼ x 8 3/8 in. (28.7 x 21.2 cm.)

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Takaaki Murakami
Takaaki Murakami

Lot Essay

The online entry for another impression in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (JP 1634) identifies the poem in the cloud reserve as number 136 in a collection of seven hundred poems compiled by Lord Shirakawa around 1265 (Shirakawa-dono shichihyakushu). The translation of the poem, by an anonymous poet, is by John T. Carpenter:
hito mo toe Let everyone know
saku ya uzuki no that now in the fourth month,
hana zakari kocho ni nitaru the deutzia flowers in bloom resemble butterflies
yado no kakine o covering a hedge in the garden.

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