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Colorful print depicting people tending to a wheatfield surrounded by a winding stream, with thatch-roofed houses and trees dotting the landscape and a tall, green mountain looming in the distance through low-hanging clouds.

Peasants and Travelers in an Autumn Landscape; Illustration of a Verse by Emperor Tenchi, no. 1 from the series the Hyakunin Isshu as Explained by an Old Nurse

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Katsushika Hokusai

This print depicts travelers passing through a rice farming community. The cartouche in the upper right corner contains a poem describing the sympathy Emperor Tenchi felt after he sought shelter from the rain in a humble farmer’s house. The poem extolls the virtues of commoners, while pointing out how uncomfortable their lives could be. This perspective underscores how important sustainable and abundant rice production was to Japanese society during the Edo period. Up to forty percent of a rice-growing community’s yield would go toward taxation that supported the nobility and the military classes.
Artist
Katsushika Hokusai
(Japanese, 1760 - 1849)
Title
Peasants and Travelers in an Autumn Landscape; Illustration of a Verse by Emperor Tenchi, no. 1 from the series the Hyakunin Isshu as Explained by an Old Nurse
Date
1835-1836
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
247 x 359 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.2426
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

By 1925, purchased in Japan by Frank Lloyd Wright; ca. 1926, acquired by The Bank of Wisconsin; 1928, sold to Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Keyes, Roger S., Peter Morse. "Catalogue Raisonné of the Single-Sheet Colour Woodblock Prints of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)." The British Museum, 2015. https://www.dh-jac.net/db1/booksrske/search.php. cat. no. 651 (not illus.)
  • Marks, Andreas. "The (Almost) Complete Hokusai." Taschen, 2024. p. 633, fig. 2
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "The Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1990. p. 220

This colorful print depicts people working in a wheatfield during harvest time, surrounded on all sides by a winding, calm stream. On the right side, three figures walk over a wood plank bridge toward the fields. They wear straw, wide-brimmed hats and carry tools for harvesting. Near the center of the print, four figures walk on grass paths surrounding the fields carrying bundles of wheat on their backs. In the foreground, wheat bundles are placed along the grass. Near the center of the field are three tall, slender trees that extend to the top of the print. Thatch-roof houses dot the landscape along with trees in shades of green, yellow and orange, suggesting the Autum season. The distant horizon line is bright pink above an expansive view of a green mountain range and low-lying white clouds.  

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