Wine bottle, bowl, and plum branch, from the series "Two Famous Products from Bizen Province (Bizen meibutsu futashina)"
c. 1823
Medium
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
Dimensions
21.9 × 19.4 cm (8 5/8 × 7 11/16 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
88609
Art Historical Context
In the early 19th century, Japanese artist Yashima Gakutei crafted this exquisite color woodblock print, *Wine Bottle, Bowl, and Plum Branch*, around 1823. Part of the series *Two Famous Products from Bizen Province (Bizen meibutsu futashina)*, it celebrates the region's renowned specialties—likely evoking Bizen's famed pottery (seen in the bowl) alongside plums and perhaps local sake or wine. Measuring just 21.9 × 19.4 cm in the intimate shikishiban format, this print invites close contemplation of its refined still-life composition. As a *surimono*, a type of privately commissioned woodbloc...
About the Artist
Yashima Gakutei · 1786–1868
Yashima Gakutei (c. 1786–1868), born in Osaka as the illegitimate son of a Tokugawa shogunate samurai named Hirata, adopted the name from his mother's subsequent marriage into the Yashima clan. Little is documented about his early years beyond these familial ties, but he pursued artistic training under the esteemed ukiyo-e masters Totoya Hokkei and Katsushika Hokusai, absorbing their precision in ...