Perhaps
the most accomplished student of Kunichika, Chikanobu shared
with his master a keen interest in recording the cultural
traditions of domestic life in Meiji Japan [1868-1912]. This
striking print from the celebrated series, Eastern Customs:
Enumerated Blessings, portrays the familiar pursuit of calligraphy
by 3 elegantly attired women. The center of the composition
is a dramatic Pine with rush grass and placed in a glazed
blue and white porcelain pot. Unusual to find that our modern
dictate that Pines be exhibited in unglazed pots has not yet
evolved in Japanese Bonsai tradition.
