Description
Cherry blossoms bloom against a tranquil, rolling landscape. This is Asukayama, now a park in Tokyo's Kita Ward. It became famous for its cherry blossoms during the Edo period, when the 8th shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune, planted cherry trees in the area and opened it up for the general public to enjoy. Even today it gets very crowded in spring as people throng to see the cherry blossoms. Two small human figures are drawn on a gentle hill to the right of the painting. They are standing beside a stone monument. This monument, which outlines the origins of Asukayama, is still standing in the park today. Otonashi River flows to the left of the hills. The vermillion building above is the Oji Gongen shrine. Sumida River lies further back, while Mount Tsukuba can be seen far in the distance. As the gaze moves further up the picture, the distant objects grow smaller and fainter, imbuing the work with an effect similar to atmospheric perspective.
This work depicts Asukayama, a park that became a popular site for cherry blossom viewing after the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune planted cherry trees there.
Data source
ColBase
"ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan" is a service that enables a multi-database search of the collections in the four national museums (To...
Contents holder/Provider
Aggregator
National Institutes for Cultural Heritage
The National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH) comprise four National Museums (Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Nara National Museum, and Kyushu National Museum) and two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), as well as the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) in Sakai City, for a total of seven institutions.
Last updated
March 30, 2026