About this collection
Suzuki Harunobu takes the classical Chinese cycle of the Eight Views — evening snow, returning sails, descending geese, the temple bell, night rain, the autumn moon — and moves every one of them into a Japanese living room. The snowfall becomes the floss heaped on a lacquer stand, the geese become the bridges of a koto, the moon becomes a mirror on a dressing table, the rain becomes water poured for tea. A mitate, a picture parody, that only works if you know the landscape it replaces.
The eight sheets are also among the first full-colour woodblock prints ever made: Harunobu forced the nishiki-e technique through from 1765, and this is the series that carried it. All eight are in the Art Institute of Chicago, Clarence Buckingham Collection, and all are public domain.
Eight sheets, chūban format, 29 × 21.7 cm at original size.