KOCHOU

Butterfly

In Japanese culture, butterflies are from the “dream world” and when they come to the real world, they feed on people’s dreams and sleep. This symbolic meaning became popular with samurai, since it symbolized immortality, eternal life, indestructibility. It is also a pattern used with wedding garments and it's tied to spirtuality: transformation, growth, reincarnation, or the soul of an ancestor or other entity.

Text from tumblr.com/lilyginnyblackv2/633599902778277888/lets-talk-about-butterflies-moths-and-japanese

Utagawa Hiroshige, Butterflies, Edo period

Implicit reference
Explicit reference

1910-1950

1941

1950-1980

1958

1980-2023

1988

1994

1997

2001

2006

2012

2013

>

2015

2022