Minneapolis Institute of Art

Ducks and Reeds

Utagawa Hiroshige; Publisher: Kawaguchiya Shōzō

Date

c. 1835

Medium

Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

As early as the tenth century in China, artists depicted geese amid dried and broken river reeds to suggest the coming of winter. The theme was emulated by amateur ink painters in Japan in the thirteen century and soon became a stock subject for professional painters. At some point, Japanese artists began to substitute ducks for geese, but the poetic sentiment remained the same as is clear from the inscription of this print: Ducks cry and the wind makes ripples on the water. Asia

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