歌川広重画　菊に鷦鷯 |A Wren and Chrysanthemums

Utagawa Hiroshige

ca. 1830 · Woodblock print · Asian Art

Intriguingly, the artist borrowed both his depiction of the wren (misosazai) and the accompanying kyōka (thirty-one-syllable witty verse) from the poetry book Myriad Birds (Momo chidori, ca. 1790), illustrated by Kitagawa Utamaro and published about four decades before. The poem is about falling in love with a high-ranked courtesan and was composed by Karagoromo Kisshū (1743–1802), a samurai-poet who was one of the pioneers of the kyōka revival in the late eighteenth century. 大鵬の 高き心の 君ゆへに うきみそさゝゐ よりもつかれず Taihō no takaki kokoro no kimi yue ni uki misosazai yori mo tsukarezu Since your ambition is as lofty as that of Taihō the majestic bird of legend as a wren, even if I fall in love, I cannot hope to soar that high. —Trans. John T. Carpenter

Artist

Utagawa Hiroshige

Date

ca. 1830

Medium

Woodblock print

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1918