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Sunday, 15 February 2026
Cherry Blossoms in Bloom: Great Works of Japanese Woodblock Printing
by Anne Sefrioui
Ten inches of snow on January 25, bitterly cold weather following. Any window from which I look shows me snow glazed with ice. Daylight savings time may well begin on March 8. Difficult to believe that Spring will promptly follow. I entertain myself with indoor activities. Such as
I very much enjoyed my time reviewing Flowers of Japan; Great Works of Japanese Woodblock Printing last month. It will be released on February 24, in just over a week. Looking through the Rizzoli Electa back list I had an Aha! moment when I found two more similar titles: "Cherry Blossoms in Bloom" and "The Four Seasons" both featuring Japanese woodblock prints and in the same accordion fold format.
An elegant sturdy slipcase protects the accordion-like folds of the more than 70 works
and an accompanying informative booklet. I confess that I find the title somewhat odd.
How could there be blossoms if they were not in bloom. No matter. Here is the sturdy trunk
of an ancient flowering cherry tree with a curtain of flowers, Mt Fuji in the background.
Using the information in the index booklet for the image on the protective slip case and I learn
that it is by Hiroshige, perhaps the most renown Japanese wood block artist of the 19th century.
There are pages and pages of cherry blossoms. Some appear with elegant ladies in
magnificent kimono, their under kimono peeping out and luxurious obi tied and trailing.
I find the wood cuts displaying little birds even more appealing, such as
this titmouse among cherry blossoms, a work by Yuzuru Hashimoto circa 1930.
Or this unnamed little bird on a cherry blossom branch by Matsumura Keibun in 1825.
I have been fortunate enough to have twice visited Japan. Once I was the keynote speaker
at an international horticultural conference in Kobe. Of course I was entertained before the event
with visits to gardens and temples. And after the event two Japanese friends took me to yet other
horticultural places, botanical gardens and onsen. And to the countryside where I saw wild cherry trees.
The other visit, I was one of 20 students from around the world
attending a two week intensive seminar on Japanese garden art
and design organized by the university in Kyoto.
Fortunately, I have a wonderful place here in the Garden State, where in April
I may visit Branch Brook Park and admire more flowering cherry trees than in Washington D.C.
But now it is still February. In fact, as I write it is again snowing.
So it is a memory of a young girl dancing among the flowering cherry that sustain me.
Because they do not last for very long, the cherry blossoms, they fall and carpet the ground.
Until the snow is gone and warm days coax the cherry trees into flower I can
unscroll the pages of "Cherry Blossoms in Bloom" in anticipation of Spring.
Cherry Blossoms in Bloom: Great Works of Japanese Woodblock Printing
Anne Sefrioui
ISBN 978-0-8478-4563-7, Hardcover, $35.00
First published in the United States by Rizzoli Electa on March 4, 2025
A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher
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If you have any comments or questions, you can e-mail me: jgglatt@gmail.com