Itō Jakuchū's Plum Blossoms and Moon from "Animal and Plants in Colors"
Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800) , who painted this extremely gruesome, dreamlike image, was counted as one of the Three Eccentrics of the Edo period, together with Soga Shōhaku (1730– 1781) and Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799). In 1755, Itō Jakuchū drew a picture of a composition similar to this work, called “Moon and Plum Blossoms.” However, he emphasized the shade of the petals and expressed it in a complicated way in this Plum Blossoms and Moon, one of the earliest of his dated works. This expression may be due to his consciousness trying to draw plum blossoms through the moonlight.