A Wren and Chrysanthemums

Utagawa Hiroshige

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Intriguingly, the artist borrowed both his depiction of the wren (misosazai) and the accompanying kyōka (thirty-one-syllable witty verse) from the poetry book Myriad Birds (Momo chidori, ca. 1790), illustrated by Kitagawa Utamaro and published about four decades before. The poem is about falling in love with a high-ranked courtesan and was composed by Karagoromo Kisshū (1743–1802), a samurai-poet who was one of the pioneers of the kyōka revival in the late eighteenth century. 大鵬の　高き心の　君ゆへにうきみそさゝゐ　よりもつかれず　 Taihō no takaki kokoro no kimi yue ni uki misosazai yori mo tsukarezu Since your ambition is as lofty as that of Taihō the majestic bird of legend as a wren, even if I fall in love, I cannot hope to soar that high. —Trans. John T. Carpenter

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art