Spring Rain Collection (Harusame shū), vol. 2: Costume for the Butterfly Dance (Kochō no mai)
Kubo Shunman Japanese
Not on view
Surimono are privately published woodblock prints, usually commissioned by individual poets or poetry groups as a form of New Year’s greeting card. The poems, most commonly kyōka (witty thirty-one syllable verse), inscribed on the prints usually include felicitous imagery connected with spring, which in the lunar calendar begins on the first day of the first month. Themes of surimono are often erudite, frequently alluding to Japanese literary classics in both texts and images.
For the Butterfly Dance (Kochō no mai), performers don ornate crowns and colorful costumes resembling butterfly wings. Originally performed as a court dance (bugaku), the Butterfly Dance was eventually incorporated into the noh and kabuki repertoires.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
