1830
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Third Print from A Low Tide Pentaptych is a 1830 by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
Here’s the plain-English rewrite: This print shows people bending over tide pools at low water, gathering crabs and shellfish. One man holds a basket while another points at a small octopus. The sea glows under pale sky. The prints were made for poetry lovers, not shops. Ten short poems run across the top of the five sheets, two per print. They joke about the best shell to find or how fast the tide can rise. Check out the next gallery if you like prints with hidden words. Look for prints by 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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