(from "Woman in the Eyes of Man: Images of Women in Japanese Art from The Field Museum", pp. 29-30, by Elizabeth Lillehoj, © 1995, with amendations by Elizabeth Lillehoj )
"This large, complex composition features women and girls outdoors, celebrating the beauties of spring on a warm, sunny day. They play games, make music and drink under blossoming cherry trees. The women in this group are from the ooku ('great interior'), the women's quarters of Edo castle. The Tokugawa crest appears in various places in the painting - on a kite overhead, on the palanquin at left and on the banners that have been set up here and there to block the wind. The site is probably Gotenyama, in the southeastern part of the capital, Edo (present day Tokyo). Gotenyama was famous for its cherry blossoms and its views over Edo Bay with Mount Fuji in the distance. Each spring, Gotenyama was flooded with tourists who came to enjoy hanami, flower viewing. The sakura here were cherry trees transplanted from Yoshino in the seventeenth century.
"On a plateau near the top of the composition, a girl with a blindfold gropes around, searching for her playmates who scurry away, laughing. On a lower hill to the left, a woman flies a kite, which appears at upper right, sailing in the clear skies. Tiny, flower-like objects fall from a white ball tried to the string near the face of the kite. Under the kite, women sit in a row on a pale orange carpet near a koto (a thirteeen-stringed musical instrument). They watch calmly as the small, flower-like objects fall through the air. Five girls at the base of the cliff chase after the falling toys, crawling on their hands and knees.
"Women in beautiful kimono move elegantly toward the right in the foreground. The central woman appears to be the highest in rank; she may be the first wife of the shogun. Beside her is an old woman with hunched shoulders and white hair, perhaps the venerable manager and grande dame of the ooku. Another lady carries a tall bundle wrapped in cloth, perhaps a bottle of sake. They seem to be looking for a comfortable spot where they can sit and drink under the cherry tress. Despite the clear ranking in Tokugawa Women Viewing Cherry Blossoms at Shinagawa, the ladies seem relaxed and unrestrained. The sense of freedom here is somewhat deceptive, however; the ooku women actually lived a cloistered, highly circumscribed existence. It is possible that they were able to escape the rigid regulations of their daily life on special outings like this; on the other hand, the artist who painted this work may have been using his imagination, adding a greater sense of freedom than these women ever experienced.
"At upper left is a panoramic view over Edo Bay toward Mount Fuji. The convincing illusion of forms receding into the distance reveals that Yokufuku, an unidentified artist, adopted the realistic spatial effects of Western art. On the basis of this and other naturalistic features, the painting of Tokugawa Women Viewing Cherry Blossoms can be dated to the Meiji period (1868-1912), after the Tokugawa clan had fallen from power. The nostalgic manner in which the ooku women are shown suggests that this painting was made for a Tokugawa patron as a sentimental reflection on the previous age, when the Tokugawa ruled the land.
"The artist signed the painting a lower right, 'by Yokufuku at age eighty-eight.' Although painted by an elderly hand, the forms are rendered with minute care and a sureness of touch, indicating the skill and experience of the artist."