# Giving a Light by the Garyubai Plum Tree

**Suzuki Harunobu** (Japanese, 1725–1770)  
c. 1767/68  
Color woodblock print; chuban  
28 × 20.4 cm (11 × 8 in.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1925.2089. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/20929).

## About this work

The Garyūbai, or Sleeping Dragon Plum, was a celebrated old tree at the Umeyashiki plum garden in Kameido, east of Edo, whose branches snaked along the ground and took root again. Crowds came each spring to see it in blossom, and Harunobu sets a small encounter there, in which one figure offers another a light, a gesture with a gentle flirtatious charge. His slender, doll-like figures and soft colours made him the most admired print designer of the late 1760s.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Suzuki Harunobu designed this in about 1767/68, aged about 37. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

A work made of color woodblock print; chuban.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Colour woodblock print.** In Japan these were a team effort. The artist drew the design, a carver cut it into cherry-wood blocks, one block for each colour, and a printer brushed on the pigment and rubbed each sheet by hand. Full-colour prints of this kind were called nishiki-e, “brocade pictures”, from the 1760s on.
- **Chūban.** A medium Japanese print size, about 26 × 19 cm, roughly half an ōban.

### [Suzuki Harunobu](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/suzuki-harunobu)

Japanese, 1725–1770

Harunobu was the first great master of the full-colour woodblock picture, or nishiki-e, which developed in Edo around 1765 out of privately commissioned calendar designs. Working mostly in the small chūban format, he favoured slender, youthful figures in intimate scenes, often with subtle allusions to classical poetry. In the few years before his death he produced hundreds of designs, and his delicate style shaped the work of a generation.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Culture: Japan
- The artist was about 37
- Real size: about 11 × 8 in (28 × 20 cm). The 8 × 10 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 18th century
- Movement: [Ukiyo-e](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/ukiyo-e)
- Subjects: Japanese (culture or style)
- Colour: olive
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/79.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/79/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/giving-a-light-by-the-garyubai-plum-tree-aic-20929).