Recurring Seasons: Intertextuality of Seasonal Imagery in Japanese Literature and Woodblock Prints

Elements of nature and the four seasons are ubiquitous in Japanese art. Seasonal motifs can be found in paintings, prints, textiles, furniture and architectural decoration, and utensils for the tea ceremony. Many natural objects are associated with a particular season and often represent a certain theme, emotion, or mood. The cultural lexicon of the four seasons grew out of traditional Japanese poetry. By 905, the time of the Kokinwakashū, Japan’s first imperial collection of waka (thirty-one syllable poems), seasonality became one of the genre’s major themes. From there, seasonal aesthetics permeated all other art forms.

While seasonal beauty has remained ubiquitous in Japan, its cultural significance has changed over time. The traditional kind of beauty associated with the ancient court of the Heian period (794-1185) was revived with an added tinge of humor by urban commoners during the Edo period (1615-1868). Edo artists and poets often made fun of “courtly elegance” (雅, ga) using their “vulgar” (俗, zoku) wit. As Japan underwent rapid and intense modernization and westernization after its opening in the mid-nineteenth century, Japanese prints and paintings featuring nature and seasonal themes became popular in the West, leading to the belief that such imagery was an essential characteristic of Japanese culture. One creator of such imagery was the artist Ohara Koson 小原古邨 (1877-1945), whose prints were exported and highly valued in the West, while remaining relatively obscure in Japan.

Seasonal aesthetics not only bridge genres, but also transcend time, sometimes accruing new cultural meaning upon revival. This exhibition showcases the intriguing intertextual nature of such themes in Japanese prints and highlights how they appear and recur with additional nuances in poetry, classical tales (including parodies), theatrical performances, and the culture of courtesans. The exhibition of prints in the gallery was researched and organized by Teppei Fukuda, a doctoral student in East Asian Languages & Literatures (School of Global Studies and Languages) as a part of a 2024 summer fellowship working with Anne Rose Kitagawa, Chief Curator of Collections & Asian Art and Director of Academic Programs.