Dwarf Potted Trees in Japanese Prints

Dwarf Potted Trees in Paintings, Scrolls
and Woodblock Prints

JAPAN -- THE PORTRAYALS

This Page Last Updated May 14, 2017

To Tokugawa

Tokugawa to 1800

Tokugawa after 1800

Meiji

Taishō, Shōwa, Heisei

The images presented here are done so in the interests of education. The footnote numbers below the images correspond to the appropriate footnotes on the text pages where the full image is described. Those footnotes not included here belong to images which either are too small to do justice to the subject or have not yet been gotten. Please note that as most of the portrayals depict these magical miniature landscapes as part of a larger human scene, the images cannot always be completely separated from the surrounding figures or background. An "*" indicates that the color version of the image is still to be gotten from the source document.

For each of the portrayals below, we can ask: * Who designed and who owned the composition?
* If it wasn't an actual magical miniature landscape being depicted, what was the artist's inspiration and experience with, and what was being symbolized besides, for example, good taste and breeding?
* Did the plants originally come from mountain, forest, field, or garden?
* When and where were the rocks collected and when were they wed to the plants?
* How long was the composition in that particular container?
* How long had the composition been so assembled, and how much longer after the portrayal did it or its components survive?
* Are any genetic descendants from cuttings, etc. of any of these plants here still extant either as dwarf potted plants or landscape specimens?
* How many owners did each of these have?
* Were there any other compositions by any of these designers or owners which were noteworthy or celebrated?

From Japan -- Up to the Tokugawa Period

Saigyo Monogatari Emaki (detail) [1]


Kasuga-gongen-genki [4]	Kasuga-gongen-genki (detail) [4]

Kasuga-gongen-genki (detail) [4]

Boki Ekotoba, 1351 [6]


Painting from 1480 [7]	Portuguese in Japan, 16th century [9]

From Japan -- Tokugawa Period (Part I)


17th cent. [1]	17th cent. [2]	c.1685 [3]	Early 18th cent. [4]


Torii Kiyomasu, early 18th cent. [5]	Attributed to Kiyomasu Torii II (1720-1760) [6]	Nichimura Shigenaga, c.1720s/1730s [7]	Nichimura Shigenaga [8]


Torii Kiyomitsu, c.1760s [9]	Yanagisawa Ki-en, mid-18th cent. [11]	Suzuki Harunobu, late 1760s [13]	Suzuki Harunobu, mid-18th cent. [14]


Suzuki Harunobu, mid-18th cent. [15]	Suzuki Harunobu, mid-18th cent. [16]	Suzuki Harunobu, mid-18th cent. [17] See also	Suzuki Harunobu, c.1770 [18]


Ippitsusai Bunchō, 1770 [19]	Eishosai Choki, late 18th cent. [21]	Torii Kiyonaga, c.1770s to pre-1790 [22] Compare with this photo from a century later.	Torii Kiyonaga, mid-1770s [23]


Torii Kiyonaga, c. 1779 [24]	Utamaro Kitagawa, 1786-88 [28]	Utamaro Kitagawa, c.1804 [30]


Utagawa Toyokuni, late 18th cent. [33]	Torin Tsutsumi, c.1795 [34]


Lacquered inkbox, c.mid-18th cent. [35]	Koma Yasutada, 18th - 19th cent. [36]


Eishi [37]	Eishi [38]

To Tokugawa

Tokugawa to 1800

Tokugawa after 1800

Meiji

Taishō, Shōwa, Heisei

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