Autumn: Harvesting Rice (Aki: inekari no zu), No. 3 from the series "The Four Seasons of Farmers (Shiki no hyakusho)"
c. 1730s
Medium
Hand-colored woodblock print; hosoban, urushi-e
Dimensions
31 × 13 cm (12 3/16 × 3 in.); 31 × 13 cm (12 3/16 × 5/8 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
31635
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of Edo-period Japan with *Autumn: Harvesting Rice (Aki: inekari no zu)*, No. 3 from Torii Kiyomasu II's series *The Four Seasons of Farmers (Shiki no hyakusho)*. Created around the 1730s, this hand-colored woodblock print captures the rhythmic toil of rice harvesting, a cornerstone of rural life. Torii Kiyomasu II, a master of the Torii school—renowned for dynamic actor prints—here shifts focus to everyday peasants, blending ukiyo-e's "floating world" aesthetic with grounded genre scenes. Printed in the narrow *hosoban* format (31 × 13 cm), this *urushi-e* (lacquer...
About the Artist
Torii Kiyomasu II · 1706–1763
At one point this artist was incorrectly identified as Kiyonobu II.