Description

On the flat sandy beach kneels an old man with white hair in an ochre-colored robe, his hands folded in reverence, while beside him a bent old woman in a gray smock sweeps the ground with a twig broom. Above both, a mighty pine spreads its horizontally reaching branches, occupying almost the entire upper half of the picture.

On the left, a deep red sun disk sits half in the sea, with shallow waves capped in white foam breaking on the shore in front of it. On the right, a moss-covered rock bounds the scene and gives the picture its firm frame. The broom and the rake accompanying the two figures belong firmly to the iconography of the motif and stand for shared, constant endeavor.

Depicted is the Takasago legend of the old couple Jō and Uba, who according to tradition grew old together under the pine of Takasago. In Japan, the motif is regarded as a symbol of marital fidelity and a long shared life, and remains to this day part of the standard pictorial repertoire at weddings. Signature and red seals appear at the top and bottom right. Executed as a silkscreen print on silk.