Catching Fireflies Beneath a Willow Tree (left) (c. 1796–97): Art, History and Details

Catching Fireflies Beneath a Willow Tree (left) (c. 1796–97) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Caught up in a frenzied pursuit of fireflies, one boy has waded into a stream after his quarry, while a younger one watches in anticipation as a young woman thrusts her fan into the air in the hope of capturing hers. In the center of the composition, a girl examines the insects trapped in her elegantly carved cage.

Object facts

• Title: Catching Fireflies Beneath a Willow Tree (left)
• Date: c. 1796–97
• Creator attribution: Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: Triptych: color woodblock print
• Dimensions: Sheet: 38.2 x 76.8 cm (15 1/16 x 30 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1975.98.c

A detail from the museum

A sense of movement is conveyed by their sleeves fluttering in the breeze.

Collection credit

Gift of Jeptha H. Wade in honor of Emily V. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1975.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 63, no. 2, 1976, pp. 31–71.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.