Bird and Mountain Cherry (left) Bird on Plum Branch (center) Geese, Ivy and Full Moon (right)

Plum Branch and Blossoms

Plum Blossoms and Wild Bird

Mandarin Ducks and Plum Branch

Summer Robe (Katabira) with Cherry and Peony Sprays and Bird Roundels

Covered bowl with design of chrysanthemums, plum blossoms, cherry blossoms, and birds

Pine Screen with Plum Branch and Okina Mask (Hikifuda Handbill)

Jar with design of peonies, chrysanthemums, plum blossoms, and hanging cherry blossoms (missing lid)

Black Print Cutout Pictures: Brushes and Japanese Plum Flowers, Brushes and Cherry Blossom Flowers (Shibata Zeshin's Block Print, Black Print, Other Prints)

Yamanba and Kintarō under a Cherry Tree

Hina Accessories: Small Chests, Plum branch design in maki-e lacquer (with crane roundles and cross-in-circle crests)

Spirit Summoner; Wild Geese Returning Home (Maboroshi; Rakugan) (right) and A Thin Veil of Clouds; Clearing Weather (Usugumo; Seiran) (left), from the series Eight Views of The Tale of Genji in the Floating World (Ukiyo Genji hakkei)

SKETCHES OF SUMMER 6: THEATRES IN THE MONTH OF AUGUST. They dream that the auditorium is full to the brim and that they argue over programmes and small seats..., let's not wake them!..

(Left) The little village on the far mountainside was already out of sight, and spring was coming around again. The grape trees were like large ailing snakes creeping under the coping stones of the wall. A brown light moved about in the tepid air. The void created by the selfsame every day is likely to chop down even the young trees that were left behind. In this everyday life, a thicket of trees protrudes like a boulder. (Right) The village I lived in has never been thought of as so small. The sun showed itself. The tall poplar forest looks like a beach being blown about by the wind. I grow dizzy just watching that seamless succession. If I can manage to get drunk on this succession of unchanging days, I can also grow to feel like I have taken down an elephant or snake. He differentiated things in this way, like a fluttering butterfly