Large Moth and Butterfly and Five Small Butterflies with text beginning "Tsubasa ni wa...", from the series An Illustrated Collection of Butterflies for the Kasumi Group (Kasumi-ren gunchō gafu), poems by Gurendo and an associate c. 1804 - 1818

Curator: This is a print by Kubo Shunman, active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It's titled "Large Moth and Butterfly and Five Small Butterflies," part of the "Illustrated Collection of Butterflies for the Kasumi Group." Editor: It feels like a dream… these delicate butterflies are captured so fleetingly. Are they dancing? Curator: The Kasumi Group was a poetry circle, and this print likely accompanied a collection of poems about butterflies and moths. Editor: Those large moths at the bottom, with those staring spots on their wings, they seem so wise, like miniature owls. Did people see them that way then? Curator: Perhaps! Certainly, the natural world held symbolic meaning. These prints served not just as illustrations, but as visual complements to literary expression. Editor: The artist really captured their lightness. It reminds me that even moths, often overlooked, possess their own unique beauty.