1830
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Fifth Print from A Low Tide Pentaptych is a 1830 by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a group of people bent over tidal pools at low tide. The water is calm. They’re gathering shellfish and seaweed. This is one of five prints made as a set. Each print has its own poem above the scene. The poems were written by a group in Edo, led by a man named Hisakataya Misora. See how the waves feel gentle here. The prints were probably made in April, the best time for this work. For another look at printmaking, check out Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1797–1861).
This is one of five surimono , privately commissioned prints, making up an image of people collecting sea life at low tide. Ten witty poems, written by members of a poetry circle, appear across the upper part of the composition, with two poems on each print. Based in Edo (now Tokyo), the group was led by Hisakataya Misora (active 1810s–30s), who wrote four of the poems. This composition may have been printed in April, which was considered the best time for beachcombing.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Kuniyoshi grew up in old Tokyo when the city was still called Edo. His dad ran a silk shop, but Kuniyoshi loved anything with pictures—scrolls, screens, comic books. He talked his way into the Utagawa school, a kind of…
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