Cherry Blossom Viewing Picnic

About this Brooklyn Icon

The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.

This 17th-century folding screen is one of the earliest examples of ukiyo-e, a genre of Japanese art that celebrates entertainments available to ordinary people. The screen shows low-level samurai warriors traveling to a spring picnic in the company of sex workers. Japanese artists had portrayed the cherry blossom season for centuries, but never before had they focused on such an undistinguished and modern group of revelers.

The subject forecasts a dramatic change that was just beginning when the screen was made: Japanese high culture, once available only to aristocrats, was reaching new audiences thanks to prosperity and urbanization in the Edo period. The growing upper middle class emulated the elite’s practices and tastes, but they also introduced new styles and subjects for theater, poetry, and visual arts.

Ukiyo-e, or “Images of the Floating World,” was one such innovation. The genre was not named until much later, but this screen’s subject matter—especially the fashionably dressed sex workers—is similar to that of 18th- and 19th-century ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints. Decorated with gold leaf, the screen was expensive and likely commissioned by someone of a much higher class than the people depicted. It is hard to imagine why the patron chose this subject, but it was certainly ahead of its time.