Cover art · reading
Casually Created on a Spring Day
Murase Taiitsu (Japanese, 1803–1881), c. 1825–81.

Using it on a cover
The print file prints up to 2.7 x 11.3 in at 300 ppi — fine for smaller trims or inset artwork, but too small to fill a 6 x 9 in cover at 300 ppi. Taller than a 6 x 9 cover: crop about 63% of the height.
About the work
Murase Taiitsu’s painting is paired with his own poem that reads: The world's fortunes rise and fall, and my heart churns without repose. I am almost like a fish in a boiling cauldron. Flowers are red, the willows green; spring is as ever. I wander through the forest to visit a humble tavern. The person in the scene gazes up at a tree’s branches, a tavern’s banner waving in the distance. After studying with a Confucian scholar in Kyoto, Taiitsu started his own school. His peers considered him eccentric and many accounts of his unusual behavior survive.
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Sources & data
- Artwork data and images from the Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access API (CC0).