Hydrangea and Swallow, from an Untitled Series of Large Flowers

Katsushika Hokusai

Color woodblock print (oban)

Metropolitan Museum of Art

This color woodblock print depicts a swallow in dynamic mid-flight beside a cluster of blooming hydrangeas, set against a vivid yellow background. It belongs to Hokusai's celebrated but untitled series of large flower prints, published in the oban format by Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudo) during the early 1830s—contemporaneous with his landmark Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. Working in the kacho-e (bird-and-flower) genre, Hokusai brings together meticulous botanical observation and a sense of arrested motion, hallmarks of his mature style. Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), one of the preeminent masters of Japanese ukiyo-e, is widely credited with elevating kacho-e to a dominant genre within the tradition of Japanese printmaking.