One Large, Two Medium-Sized and Two Small Butterflies with text beginning "Tokimune ga...", from the series An Illustrated Collection of Butterflies for the Kasumi Group (Kasumi-ren gunchō gafu), poems by Dento Fuso and associates c. 1804 - 1818

Curator: The first thing that strikes me about this piece is its quiet whimsy—it’s almost a visual haiku. Editor: Fitting, since it includes text beginning "Tokimune ga..." as part of Kubo Shunman's "An Illustrated Collection of Butterflies for the Kasumi Group." The poems are by Dento Fuso and associates, likely commissioned for a poetry circle. I see it as a commodity object reflecting Edo period artistic production. Curator: Absolutely. But don't you think the delicate wash of colors, the varying sizes of the butterflies, it lends a dreamlike quality? A feeling of ephemeral beauty? Editor: I agree it's lovely, but I can't ignore the paper itself, the pigments ground and applied with intention. The very act of creation embedded with social meaning. Curator: So true. Art is always both material and ethereal, isn't it? Editor: Precisely, and thinking about the Kasumi Group as patrons changes how we see its value.