- Provenance
- Provenance research underway.
- Label
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Like Hokusai, Hiroshige produced a large number of striking prints of natural subjects, including animals. Here bats, auspicious symbols in China and Japan, are rendered in black ink in a simple composition that creates a striking, abstract design. Color is restricted to black, gray, and blue, and a quarter circle of unprinted paper represents the full moon. To the lower right, pilings on an embankment are rendered as wide brushstrokes of black ink. The replication of brushstrokes without outline is a striking feature of this print, which also has a seventeen-syllable haiku (hokku) inscribed in cursive calligraphy:
Bats
living in darkness,
the color of their wings.
- Published References
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- Ann Yonemura, et al. Masterful Illusions: Japanese Prints from the Anne van Biema Collection. Seattle and Washington. cat. 131, pp. 316-317.
- Collection Area(s)
- Japanese Art
- Web Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- SI Usage Statement
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Usage Conditions Apply
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
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CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
Usage Conditions Apply
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
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International Image Interoperability Framework
FS-7440_31