National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

Asai Chū (1856–1907) is one of the most prominent Western-style painters of the Meiji era. He learned oil painting from the Italian painter Fontanesi at the Kobu Bijutsu Gakko (the Art School of the Ministry of Public Works) and achieved a naturalistic style of painting. This painting presents a glamorous world full of nature from Asai's original perspective, while influenced by Fontanesi. The foreground is a barley field in early spring, where a farm family is working hard. The soil of the field, containing moisture, is black and soft. Farmhouses with a straw-thatched roof stand in a row in the background, and white plum blossoms begin to bloom here and there. This piece gently captures the tranquil rural scenery with the smell of the earth. It belongs to the early period of Asai's career and was submitted to the first Meiji Bijutsu-kai (Meiji Art Society) Exhibition. Asai became a major painter in the Meiji Bijutsu-kai, and later he stayed in France to study. After returning to Japan, he taught many painters of the next generation, as an authority in the Western art circle of the Kansai region.