Lion and Peonies c. 1720 - 1725

Okumura Masanobu created this woodblock print, Lion and Peonies, sometime in the early 1700s. It would have been made for a popular audience during the Edo period in Japan, a time of economic growth and relative peace. In this period we can see the development of a vibrant urban culture, and the rise of the merchant class as important consumers of art. Woodblock prints such as this were commercial objects that would be traded and collected. The image is composed around symbols from Chinese culture. The lion is a guardian figure derived from Buddhist art and the peony represents wealth and prosperity. You will notice that the way the lion has been drawn is quite stylized with a curly mane and fierce expression. This print would have appealed to the merchant classes who were developing their own aesthetic culture separate from the aristocracy. Historians consult a range of sources to better understand the context of artworks like this, including trade records, religious texts, and literature. These all allow us to reflect on the meaning of art as something that is always contingent on its social and institutional context.