Bloemen- en vogelschetsen van Bairei 1892

Kōno Bairei created this woodblock print, titled "Bloemen- en vogelschetsen van Bairei" sometime in the late 19th century. It shows a bird perched on a rock, alongside a small yellow flower. Bairei lived during the Meiji period in Japan, a time of rapid modernization and Westernization. Artists like Bairei were navigating the tension between traditional Japanese art forms and new Western influences. Woodblock prints, like this one, were a popular medium, and they were also being produced for export to the West. The Rijksmuseum, where this print is housed, reflects the global circulation of art during this period, and the institutional interest in collecting works from different cultures. To understand this print more fully, we might look to historical texts about Japanese art during the Meiji period. By doing so, we can better understand the complex social and artistic transformations of the time.