Wedding Procession c. 19th century

This is an Utagawa Hiroshige woodblock print depicting a Japanese wedding procession. Note the towering pine tree, a symbol of longevity and steadfastness, which watches over the procession. Trees appear in countless cultures, often as the "axis mundi," the world's center, connecting the earthly and the divine. We see this same impulse in the Norse Yggdrasil, or the Tree of Life in various mythologies. In Japan, trees are often associated with spirits, or kami, embodying the sacred within nature. The journey of the wedding procession can be viewed as a symbolic path through life. Think of the cyclical, universal symbolism of journeys in art. The wedding procession, like the journey of life, is not linear but cyclical, with echoes of the past and anticipation of the future. Such images resonate because they tap into deep-seated human experiences, inviting us to reflect on our own lives, our own connections to the past, and the cultural narratives that shape our understanding of existence.