Page 478 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Katsushika Ôi
(active mid-nineteenth century)
Cherry Blossoms at Night

c. 18505
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
88.7x34.5 (35x1372)
Menard Art Museum, Aichi

• As in the previous work, Oi experi-
ments with the optical effects of light
and shadow. Here a young woman
brushes a verse on a long poem 477
card in the flickering light of a stone
lantern taller than herself. Behind
her the cherry blossoms in full bloom
glow brightly.

The figure style of this and the previous
painting conforms to the very stiff,
highly stylized manner Hokusai used
from about 1810 to 1830, after which
he abandoned paintings of female
subjects altogether. Followers, includ-
ing Oi, continued to produce paint-
ings of beautiful women in the mas-
ter's distinctive style — often, as seen
here, in an even more mannered way.

The night sky is shown glittering with
stars, a rare occurrence in the history
of Japanese painting and evidence of
the increased interest in astronomi-
cal phenomena derived from western
science and optics at the end of the
Edo period. JTC

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