Blossoming Cherry Trees in Ueno Park (Ueno kōen kaika zu)

Yōshū (Hashimoto) Chikanobu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

From the late 1880s and 1890s, prints depicting the imperial couple on outings and attending other public events often had a conspicuous didactic function. They portrayed the emperor and empress as heads of a model nuclear family and aimed to show that the couple promoted the industrialization of Japan. Here, they enjoy the traditional pastime of viewing cherry blossoms in Ueno Park, which opened to the public in 1876 in the quickly evolving modern city of Tokyo.

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