Week 8 Discussion

About Japanese Maple Trees

There is more than one Japanese word for the Japanese maple tree. The one featured in this lesson is momiji. (紅葉) It specifically means the Japanese maple tree when the leaves have turned color in the fall. Colors can range from yellow to yellow/green, to red. The iconic color, the one most favored by Japanese artists, is a bright red.

The other word, the one for the tree when the leaves are green, is kaede (楓).

The Latin name for the Japanese maple is Acer palmatum. It has been used as an accent plant in Japanese gardens for centuries. The original plant generally grows from 20 to 33 feet, but exceptional trees can grow as tall as 52 feet. It can grow from 15 to 33 feet wide. The mature tree has a dome-like shape.

Dozens of cultivars have been produced. Some of the greatest variation can be seen in the leaves as shown in the illustration below.

The leaf pictures below show variations in color.

Along with leaves, Japanese maples produce tiny blossoms. The same tree has both male and female organs.

The fruit, called samara, are seeds enclosed in a papery wrapping shaped like wings. When they fall, they spin and can be carried far from the tree by wind.

Japanese Artwork

Japanese maples are popularly adapted as bonasi. The two bonsai seem very similar, but I think they are different trees.

The first painting below is one of a pair of 6-panel byōbu painted by Sakai Hōitsu (1761 – 1829) titled Maple and Cherry Trees. Hōitsu was a Rinpa School artist who admired the work of and imitated the style of Ogata Kōrin (1658 – 1716). The mottled appearance of the tree trunks is produced by tarashikomi, a technique developed by Rinpa School artists, of drops of paint on a previously painted but still wet surface.

Here is its companion piece depicting a cherry tree.

The next painting is one of many momiji ukiyo-e prints that Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 1858) did. It is a kachōga (birds and flowers) print titled Sparrow on Maple Branch. It is uncertain when it was produced.

This next print of Hiroshige's is #97 from his series, 100 Famous Views of Edo, painted in 1857. Its title is Maple Leaves and the Tekona Shrine and Bridge at Mama.

Nakayama Sûgakudô produced this next kachōga ukiyo-e print, Manchurian Great Tit, Maple Leaves, and Late Blooming Cherry, #36 in the series Forty-eight Hawks Drawn from Life, produced in 1859. Not much is known about him other than that he was a student of Hiroshige's and was active in the 1850s.

Nihonga is another term for Japanese paintings from about 1900 onwards that use traditional conventions, techniques, and materials. A master of nihonga was Yokoyama Taikan (1868 - 1958). He was appointed an artist of the Imperial Household in 1931. In that same year, he painted the two 6-fold byōbu titled Autumn Leaves shown below.

Here is a closer view of the main painting.