Fine Art

Plum Garden at Kameido (Kameido Umeyashiki), from the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)" — History & Facts

A thick, dark plum tree trunk cuts across the foreground, its bark rendered in deep gray and black tones. Delicate white blossoms with touches of pale yellow cluster along the branches, some blooming fully while others remain as tight buds. Several slender branches extend upward and outward, their blossoms standing out against a softly graded sky that shifts from warm pink at the top to a pale cream near the horizon.

Behind the main tree, a dense grove of finer, lighter plum trees fills the middle ground, their thinner branches covered in smaller blossoms and buds. Near the upper right, a rectangular cartouche with blue and tan patterning contains vertical Japanese script. In the background, a group of small human figures is visible; some wear blue garments and stand in a line near a fence, while others are scattered further back among the trees.

A pale green lawn covers the ground, dotted with scattered white petals and shadows from the trees above. The lower left corner features a red rectangular seal with black calligraphy. Fine lines and subtle gradations of color characterize the print, with smooth transitions in the sky and crisp outlines on the trees and blossoms.

The overall composition is dominated by the dramatic diagonal of the foreground trunk, which frames the more distant orchard and figures. Utagawa Hiroshige created this print in 1857. The Art Institute of Chicago notes that the print entered its collection as a gift from Harold G. Henderson and Mary A.

Henderson in 1965.

Sources: Art Institute of Chicago, record 1965.1027

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