''Plum Park in Kameido'' (亀戸梅屋舗, ''Kameido Umeyashiki'') is a

woodblock print Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is create ...

in the

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

genre by the Japanese artist

Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige (, also ; ja, 歌川広重 ), born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format l ...

. It was published in 1857 as the thirtieth print in the ''

One Hundred Famous Views of Edo ''One Hundred Famous Views of Edo'' (in ja, 名所江戸百景, Meisho Edo Hyakkei) is a series of 119 ukiyo-e prints begun and largely completed by the Japanese artist Hiroshige (1797–1858). The prints were first published in serialized form i ...

'' series and depicts ''

Prunus mume ''Prunus mume'' is an East Asian and Southeast Asian tree species classified in the ''Armeniaca'' section of the genus ''Prunus'' subgenus ''Prunus''. Its common names include Chinese plum, Japanese plum, and Japanese apricot. The flower, long ...

'' trees in bloom.

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...

, who was influenced by Japanese prints, reproduced the image in his 1887 painting ''Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige)''.

''One Hundred Famous Views of Edo''

The picture is part of the series ''

'' which actually features 119 views of named places or celebrated spots in the city of Edo (modern

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

). The series was the first to feature this many separate landscape views. The series was produced between 1856 and 1859, with Hiroshige II finishing the series after the death of Hiroshige in 1858. This print is the 30th in the series, within its spring section, and was published in the eleventh month of 1857. The series was commissioned shortly after the

1855 Edo earthquake The , was the third Ansei Great Earthquake, which occurred during the late-Edo period. It occurred after the 1854 Nankai earthquake, which took place about a year prior. The earthquake occurred at 22:00 local time on 11 November. It had an epi ...

and subsequent fires, and featured many of the newly rebuilt or repaired buildings. The prints may have commemorated or helped draw the attention of Edo's citizens to the progress of the rebuilding. The series is in portrait orientation, which was a break from ukiyo-e tradition for landscape prints, and proved popular with his audience.

Description

The print shows part of the most famous tree in Edo, the , which had blossoms "so white when full in bloom as to drive off the darkness" and branches that travelled looping across the ground like a dragon to emerge as further trunks over an area of 50 square feet.Plum Estate, Kameido (Kameido Umeyashiki), No. 30 from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
/ref> The tree is shown with a unique abstract composition, with wide branches taking up much of the foreground but cropped by the frame of the picture giving a resemblance to

Japanese calligraphy also called is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. Written Japanese was originally based on Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japanese syllabaries resulted in intrin ...

. ardner's Art through the Ages: Backpack Edition, Book F: Non-Western Art Since 1300, Fred Kleiner, Cengage Learning, 1 Jan 2015, pg 1076-8/ref> The tree is situated in ''Umeyashiki'', a plum garden by the banks of the

Sumida River The is a river that flows through central Tokyo, Japan. It branches from the Arakawa River at Iwabuchi (in Kita-ku) and flows into Tokyo Bay. Its tributaries include the Kanda and Shakujii rivers. It passes through the Kita, Adachi, Arakaw ...

in Kameido. Visible between the branches of the Sleeping Dragon Plum are further trees and small figures behind a low fence contemplating the

plum blossom ''Prunus mume'' is an East Asian and Southeast Asian tree species classified in the ''Armeniaca'' section of the genus ''Prunus'' subgenus ''Prunus''. Its common names include Chinese plum, Japanese plum, and Japanese apricot. The flower, long ...

. A sign, possibly forbidding vandalism, is in the foreground at the top left of the image. The image demonstrates Hiroshige's mastery of Japanese landscapes and uses his exaggerated single-point perspective whereby the closest objects in view are increased in size. The positioning of the undetailed subject 'too close to the lens' is intended to draw the eye to the scene beyond. In addition the use of the unnatural red sky has the effect of flattening the visible space.

Influence

Hiroshige's most popular prints were produced in the tens of thousands at a low individual cost and due to the opening up of Japan after 1853 were popular both in Japan and Europe where they had a huge influence on the

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

artists.Hiroshige: Master printmaker still making waves
/ref> Hiroshige Van Gogh 1

was a collector of Japanese prints,Van Gogh and Japanese Art, Part 1 - The Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige) & Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige)
/ref> decorating his studio with them. He was heavily influenced by these prints, particularly those by Hiroshige, and in 1887 painted copies of two of the ''One Hundred Famous Views of Edo'', ''

Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake is a woodblock print in the ukiyo-e genre by the Japanese artist Hiroshige. It was published in 1857 as part of the series ''One Hundred Famous Views of Edo'' and is one his best known prints. ''One Hundred Famous Views of Edo'' The picture is ...

'' and ''Plum Park''.Plum Estate, Kameido
/ref> He made these copies in order to try out for himself elements he admired such as the cropped composition, decorative use of colour, large blocks of colour with strong outlines, flat brushstrokes, and diagonal elements.Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige)
/ref> Van Gogh ignored the shading present in the trunk and background of Hiroshige's image, which there implied age, and instead used colours with more "passion" and "youthfulness".Japonisme in Britain: Whistler, Menpes, Henry, Hornel and nineteenth-century Japan, Ayako Ono, Routledge, 5 Nov 2013

References

External links

Many different versions of the print from ukiyo-e.org
{{Portal bar, Japan, Visual arts Works by Hiroshige 1857 prints 1857 in Japan Landscape prints