Potted Pine Tree Drum and Seven Herbs Planted in a Box 18th - 19th century

Curator: This lovely woodblock print, “Potted Pine Tree Drum and Seven Herbs Planted in a Box”, comes to us from 18th or 19th century Japan. The artist's profile is listed as Sunayama Gosei. It strikes me as a little domestic still life, no? Editor: My first thought is the incredible detail crammed into this modest space. It feels…intimate, but almost in a scientific way. It's like peering into a scholar's cabinet of curiosities, all neat and organized. The materiality of everything feels important here. Curator: I agree about the intimate part. It’s not trying to be grand or make a statement. It’s quiet, a little sanctuary perhaps. All these plants together feel like a contained and very deliberate expression of life and cultivation. It makes you want to cultivate too! Editor: Deliberate is key. The composition forces your eye to wander between the robust pine bonsai, the drum wrapped tightly in string, and that extraordinary miniature garden in a box, all demanding different craft techniques. We have gardening of course, the joinery to build that fantastic terrarium, and whatever skin-stretching and knot-tying needed to make the instrument. Curator: I’d almost missed the writing! Inscriptions adorn each little plant in the box. They add another layer to the stillness. The plants almost speak and remind one that they need to be named, talked about, and studied in order to feel them breathe the way one wishes to do for someone or something dear. Editor: Exactly! It reminds us that even in something as seemingly simple as a houseplant, there’s an entire infrastructure. The box isn't just a box—it’s carpentry, access to glass, social systems, it reflects economic realities. I would argue, in ukiyo-e more broadly, printmaking democratized art production in new and significant ways at the time. Curator: I see what you mean. All the labor really shows. Considering this piece further, the tension and harmony comes alive by arranging something chaotic, life, through artistic composition and man-made constraints. It's lovely. Editor: Yes, it’s those contrasting realities that makes the image linger. So much careful work and care have to go in, and yet each is fragile and fleeting. Curator: I'll cherish this piece's sense of fleeting life and ever-present material labor. Editor: It truly makes you think about all the stuff that supports simple pleasures, doesn’t it? A gift to be reminded.