Autumn Flowers in a Bamboo Basket

Autumn Flowers in a Bamboo Basket

Yosa Buson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An informal bouquet of autumn flowers stands in a tall Chinese-style bamboo basket with an elegant rounded handle. Chrysanthemums (kiku), Chinese bellflowers (kikyō), and rose mallows (fuyō) are all associated in traditional Japanese poetry with autumn, their season of full bloom. The Nanga-school artist Yosa Buson styles himself “Chōkō” in his signature, indicating that he painted this in his mid- to late forties. He used a technique for rendering the flowers called sumi-nijimi, or “ink blurring,” in which the artist applies brushstrokes to the surface of ink washes before they have dried, creating an evocative, soft texturing effect. This contrasts with the short horizontal strokes in dark ink used to convey the texture of the plaited bamboo.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Autumn Flowers in a Bamboo BasketAutumn Flowers in a Bamboo BasketAutumn Flowers in a Bamboo BasketAutumn Flowers in a Bamboo BasketAutumn Flowers in a Bamboo Basket

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.