Utagawa Kuniyoshi - “‘A Lovely Garland’ (Tamakazura)- Tamatori-ama,” from the series Scenes amid Genji Clouds - 1845–46 - STICKER Vinyl Kiss-Cut Decal

A woman in a patterned green kimono grapples with a giant octopus in this mid-19th-century ukiyo-e print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, drawn from his Scenes amid Genji Clouds series.

Visual Elements & Composition

The print is a vertical rectangle, with the struggle filling the lower field. The woman's forest-green kimono is set against a pale blue ground, and her dagger is raised toward the octopus's suckered tentacles, which curl across the sheet in rhythmic spirals. A sailing boat appears in the upper panel, placing the scene at sea. The vertical cartouche carries the series title, 源氏雲浮世画合, and the numeral 廿二 (twenty-two), marking the print's place in the set. The palette of salmon pink, crimson and cream draws on traditional Japanese pigments, and the intricate line work gives the sea and the creature their texture.

Meaning & Symbolism

The title binds two sources. "A Lovely Garland" refers to Tamakazura, a figure from the Tale of Genji, while "Tamatori-ama" invokes the pearl-diving legend in which a diver wrests a precious jewel from a sea dragon. Kuniyoshi replaces the dragon with an octopus, turning a classical tale of courage and treasure into a dramatic scene of the sea. The series, created in 1845–46, reworks Genji's courtly world through the lively, narrative tradition of Edo-period woodblock printing, which is why an aristocratic story appears here as a daring act of seafaring heroism.

Crafted for the Cut Edge

A kiss-cut sticker follows its own outline, so the composition is shaped by the print itself. The octopus's tentacles and the boat's silhouette define the edge, and the design reads as a single object rather than a rectangle with a border. Placed on a laptop, journal or window, it carries the dagger, the sea and the jewel-hunt in one contained image, the same narrative economy Kuniyoshi used on the original sheet.