Keywords
Art History
Painting
Ch: caochonghua. Paintings of insects and plants, where various kinds of insects including bees, butterflies, and grasshoppers, set among flowers and grasses, are depicted in a distinct thematic genre. Although sōchūga were very popular in Changzhou (Jp: Jōshū 常州), China, from the Song to the Ming dynasties, and many extant examples are found in Japanese collections, Japanese artists seldom did this type of painting. A rare but well-known Japanese example is a large hanging scroll depicting various insects around a pond by Itō Jakuchū 伊藤若冲 (1716-1800), which is among a set of 30 scrolls of Dōshoku sai-e 動植綵絵 (The Animals and Plants in Colors; 1770, Imperial Collection).