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Performing Beneath the Flowers
Tamura Suio (Japanese, active late 1600s–early 1700s)
late 1600s–early 1700s
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on silk
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Painting: 45.7 x 26.3 cm (18 x 10 3/8 in.); Mounted: 121.2 x 38.2 cm (47 11/16 x 15 1/16 in.)
- Culture
- Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Art
- Credit line
- The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Ellen and Bruce Mavec
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
The activity of viewing cherry blossoms is known in Japan as o-hanami, literally “viewing flowers.” Beyond reveling in the spring scene, people also enjoy games and entertainment. In this painting, a beautiful young man strumming a shamisen is brought together with an older blind monk playing what is likely a biwa under the boughs of a cherry in full bloom.
