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Japanese Maples

Maples are deciduous hardwood trees. Even so called soft maples are hardwoods. Like most deciduous trees, maples are bare in the winter like this dwarf Japanese maple tree.

In the spring, leaf buds begin to appear.

Fully grown maple leaves usually have five lobes, but some varieties have seven. These are Japanese maple leaves.

There are around 132 species of maple tree around the world, mostly in Asia. Though the leaf shapes have lobes in common, there are variations. This is a leaf of some other maple tree species for comparison.

Spring is also when Japanese maple trees produce flowers.

By the end of spring and early summer, Japanese maples are fully leafed and thickly green.

Japanese maple trees (Acer palmatum) grow from 15 to 25 feet tall with a similar spread. Some other maple species are much larger. They can be grown as single-trunk trees of shrubs.

Japanese have two names for Japanese maple trees depending on the color of the leaves. In the spring and summer when the leaves are green, they are named kaede. In the autumn, kaede leaves transform to a variety of colors including gold, yellow, various shades of orange, and rich reds.

Note that these leaves have seven lobes.

Autumn is also the time that the seeds mature, grow wings (a winged seed is called a samara), turn fully brown, and drop from the tree, bourn some distance away from the tree by the wings being caught by a breeze. Though the seeds grow in pairs, they split apart and fall separately.

Autumn changes transform Japanese from kaede into strikingly beautiful momiji.

Here is another one of Bashō's haiku. It was inspired by an experience he had watching a fishing boat where fishermen used cormorants to catch fish. One end of a long cord is tied around the base of a cormorant's neck before releasing the bird to hunt for food. When the cormorant catches and swallows a fish, the cord prevents it from entering the bird's stomach. The bird is pulled in by the cord, and the fisherman forces the fish out of the birds neck.

Here is what Bashō wrote.

Fish

Part of this week's painting subject is fish. Bashō's haiku is the reason. Cormorants have to have something to catch, and because early rules for haiga prevent cormorants from being depicted, it will have to be fish. The specific type of fish I've chosen is a freshwater fish called ayu in Japanese and Sweetfish in English. 

Artwork

Bonsai is a form of living art for which the Japanese Maple tree is a suitable subject.

Hasegawa Tōhaku (1539 – 1610)

Tōhaku was one of the greatest painting masters of the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573-1603). He is especially known for his byōbu, several of which have been designated National Treasures. The 4-fold Maple Tree byōbu below, painted in 1593, is among them.

Hosoda Eishi (1756 – 1829)

A member of the prestigious Fujiwara clan, Eishi initially studied art with the Kanō school before switching to ukiyo-e print design. Many of his subjects included illustrations of literary works like Genjji Monogatari (Tale of Genji). He was also known for his bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful people), depicting women especially with elongated, thin bodies. Eishi switched to painting in 1801 and earned the honorary title, Jibukyō. (I don't know what it means.) The print below is part of an ukiyo-e series by Eishi titled Genji in Fashionable Modern Guise based on an episode in Genji Monogatari. It shows Genji seated under maple trees. The muted colors are because of laws at the time banning ostentation.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849)

Hokusai produced so many ukiyo-e that it is sometimes hard to remember that the majority of his output was on other media. It is uncertain when Hokusai painted this 6-fold byōbu of Autumn Maple Trees.

Sakai Ōho (1808 – 1841)

Ōho was a Rinpa School artist who studied under Sakai Hoitsu (1761 - 1828). He was also a descendent of Hon’ami Kōetsu (1558 –1637), the great calligraphy master. Ōho is little known because he died young, and not much of his works survive. This maple tree hanging scroll is his version of a composition that several generations of artists before him painted.

Yokoyama Taikan (1868 – 1958)

As a young artist, Taikan studied art under one of the last masters of the Kanō style of art, Hashimoto Gahō. He also took an interest in Western painting techniques. On his own, his painting style most closely resembled that of Rinpa school artists with some Western techniques included. Other Japanese artists derisively referred to his work as the blurred style based on his elimination of lines and the use of soft blurred outlines instead, but his work is highly regarded today. His pair of 6-fold byōbu titled Autumn Leaves was painted in 1931. The two are shown below with the right side byōbu shown above the left side. Japanese paintings are "read" from right to left.