Woman Digging Bamboo Shoots in the Snow, or Parody of Meng Zong (Mōsō), from Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety

ca. 1765

Not on view

Harunobu treated a popular paragon theme with great innovation here, applying the playfully subversive spirit of ukiyo-e to the story of Meng Zong (J.: Mōsō), a boy whose filial piety prompted heaven to cause the sprouting of spring bamboo shoots in the dead of winter for his ill mother. The story is incorporated in a New Year's calendar print of bijin, or beautiful women. Combining a popular subject with the associations of a holiday, he made the virtuous theme entertaining to a general Edo audience.

Artwork Details

鈴木春信画　雪中に筍を掘る女　見立孟宗
Title: Woman Digging Bamboo Shoots in the Snow, or Parody of Meng Zong (Mōsō), from Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety
Artist: Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, 1725–1770)
Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
Date: ca. 1765
Culture: Japan
Medium: Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Dimensions: Vertical chūban; Image: 11 1/8 × 8 3/8 in. (28.3 × 21.3 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936
Object Number: JP2439
Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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