Quail and Poppies

Japanese artists have long paired quail and ripe grain in their autumn paintings. The quail's cry is thought to suggest the melancholy mood of that season. In this print, however, Hiroshige seems to be having some lighthearted fun with this tradition. In Japanese, young quail are called mugiuzura (literally, wheat-quail), since they hatch in fields of springtime grasses. Here, however, a young quail looks up at a poppy (a flower associated with summer), but as the poem suggests, it may be yearning for autumn: The young quail cries, dreaming of fall.