Explore “The Cherry Blossom Festival” in the Series Vestiges of Genji
Get to know in detail this woodblock print created by Utagawa Kunisada II and Utagawa Hiroshige II.
The cherry blossom festival / Hana no en (1864) by Utagawa Kunisada II, Utagawa Hiroshige IIBujalance Collection
Spring is heralded in Japan by the cherry blossom, much admired for its beauty and fragrance.
These blossoms also adorn screens, such as the one separating, in this print, two lovers staging a parody of Prince Genji's love affair with a lady of high position.
In those days, all love messages were conveyed in poems, which is why the novel Genji Monogatari is full of short tanka poems, with lines of 5, 7, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables.
The lovers spent the night exchanging poems...
...and, as a token of their budding romance, exchanged fans the following morning. This was a way of establishing the beginning of an affair between two strangers.
As a romantic gesture, Prince Genji recited these verses to inquire about the lady's name:
Whose can it be
the dewy hut moistened
by the dew?
I want to know, before
the wind blows it away
Estampas del Estampas del príncipe Genji. Comisario David Almazán. Red Itiner 2023
