Itō Jakuchū Boxed Notecard Assortment

Meditative expressions of the natural world, Ito Jakuchu’s bird-and-flower images take pride of place among Japanese artworks of the mid-Edo period. Jakuchu, a largely self-taught artist and a devoted Buddhist, was well aware of the country’s increasingly modern appetites, thanks to his family’s grocery store in the heart of a rapidly growing Kyoto. He painted in a traditional yet modern manner, experimenting with intricate realism using fresh perspectives and vibrant decorative styles. Jakuchu’s captivating paintings garnered much acclaim, making him perhaps the best known of what is now called the “Lineage of Eccentrics,” a small number of artists who broke with formal Japanese art at the time. The works presented here are posthumous woodblock prints made from his original designs, printed 100 years after his death—a testament to the revolutionary artist’s enduring appeal.