Catching Fireflies c. 1767

Curator: This is Suzuki Harunobu’s "Catching Fireflies," a woodblock print made around 1767. Immediately striking, isn’t it? A nocturnal scene with these figures bathed in the ambient light of… what? Fireflies? Lanterns? Editor: It’s rather dreamlike. The figures seem to float against that intense dark blue backdrop. And the restrained palette—those muted earth tones offset by glimpses of red—creates a serene, almost melancholic atmosphere. I am curious about the process. Was this printed from multiple blocks? Curator: Precisely. It is believed that Harunobu innovated the "brocade print" technique which demanded an exacting production line using multiple blocks, one for each color. This allowed the expression to be subtle gradations of tone, and of course, a commercial advantage as the best prints would become the template. How does that layered, constructed approach to the image inform your formal reading? Editor: Well, the figures, rendered with delicate, flowing lines, contrast with the more blocky, almost abstract representation of the water and reeds. It creates a tension, a dialogue between the organic and the geometric. What sort of social circumstances enabled this technique to flourish, beyond just commerce? Curator: Harunobu catered to the emerging merchant class and their desires. These consumers favored scenes from everyday life, re-contextualizing older poetic themes with images of contemporary actors and social performances. He and others who made Ukiyo-e prints provided not just artworks but commodities available for purchase, re-defining labor for artists. Editor: It’s interesting how he uses this simplified color palette and carefully calibrated perspective to convey a sense of depth, a vastness of space, especially given the physical constraints of the woodblock medium itself. The relationship between his intention and the technique that results is especially well-presented here. Curator: Absolutely. It speaks to a world becoming newly aware of itself as an ordered place in which one can place oneself through purchasing an image to display. And, more romantically, it reminds us that even mundane activities, like catching fireflies, can be imbued with a sense of wonder. Editor: Yes. It's an exercise in composition, a beautiful study of form, space, and light that, through Harunobu's skilled hands, becomes profoundly moving.