Warbler on a Plum Branch

Warbler on a Plum Branch

Utagawa Hiroshige

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Poems included on Hiroshige’s bird-and-flower compositions are usually unsigned, but sometimes they are by famous poets, such as this verse by Suganuma Kyokusui (1659–1717), a poet of the samurai class who was a pupil and patron of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694). Here, Kyokusui playfully suggests that the warbler (uguisu) pays its yearly taxes in the spring by generously singing a song on the small grove where it lives. 鶯や　二升五合の　藪年貢 Uguisu ya masumasu hanjō no yabu nengu Oh, the warbler! It pays a generous tithe for such a tiny grove. —Trans. John T. Carpenter

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.