Baixiang Fruit

Fruits native to East Asia have long held symbolic meaning in the literary and artistic traditions of China, Korea, and Japan—common examples include peaches, grapes, pomegranates, and gourds. However, the colorful abundance of plump round fruits you see here, rendered by Araki with washes of purples, yellows, and greens, has no symbolic meaning whatsoever in traditional Asian culture. You might recognize these globular fruits as passion fruits, as they are known in the English-speaking world. The artist's title comes from the modern Chinese epithet for these fruits, baixiang, a phonetic rendering of the English word "passion" that means "fruit of one hundred fragrances" in Chinese. Depictions of fruits--passion fruit and persimmons most prominently—were a mainstay of Araki's painting throughout his life, not only as a vehicle for exploring the expressive potential of ink and color wash but likely also as a personal logo of sorts, one particularly fitting for an artist whose given name, Minol, means "fruit."