Parrot on the Branch of a Flowering Rose Bush 1890 - 1910

Ito Jakuchu made this woodblock print of a parrot on a rose branch sometime in the mid-to-late 1700s. During this Edo period in Japan, Jakuchu was experimenting with the formal qualities of painting in ways that have struck many as strikingly modern. Like other artists of his time, he was caught up in the aesthetic vogue for foreign things, especially those coming from China. In Japan, parrots were understood to be exotic creatures and were often kept by members of the elite. Rose cultivation and the cultivation of other foreign species of plants were also very fashionable. As he was from a merchant background, Jakuchu probably had access to these commodities. Historians consult paintings and prints, along with trade records and botanical illustrations, to better understand the culture of early modern Japan. In this case, the image reflects a society eager to embrace the novel and the foreign.