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The Five Festivals - Spring Festival
Kunisada I (Toyokuni III), 1849, Wood cut
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The Five Festivals - Spring Festival
The Five Festivals - Spring Festival
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Item no
336
Title
Untitled series referencing The Five Seasonal Festivals, Spring Festival, January and March - the 1st and 3rd Months (Go sekku no uchi)
Description
Unidentified dance drama featuring characters associated with the New Year celebrations. The female character who ceremoniously pulls up small pines is played by a male Kabuki actor, and wears highly decorative theatrical costume. The textile design is made up of auspicious symbols: Shinto sacred ropes (shimenawa), Shinto folded paper offerings (gohei), evergreen pines and lobsters (the lobster's curved back suggested old age and longevity). Upon her fan lies a branch of pine, one of the three 'Gentleman Scholar's Winter Friends' that symbolized hope, perseverance and endurance during the winter months.
The male character, dressed as a Yabusame, rides a pantomime horse and carries a bow and arrows. Shooting an arrow was one of the ceremonial 'Firsts' that took place at the beginning of the New Year. There is also a reference in the print to the early approach of Children's Day (the 3rd day of the 3rd month).
Artist / maker
Kunisada I (Toyokuni III)
Date
1849
Size
37 x 29 cm.
Type
Wood cut
Location
Art and Design Library
The following information appears on the print:
Signed: Ichiyosai Toyokuni ga
Artist: Utagawa Kunisada I (Toyokuni III)
Censor's seals: Watanabe and Kinugasa (1849 - 1850)
This print is from a series that celebrated the 5 seasonal festivals of the year ('Go sekku'). This print is linked to the Spring Festival celebrations.
This is one of a set of 50 prints donated to Edinburgh City Libraries by Marie Ferguson Dyer in honour of her father Henry Dyer. Dyer was a Scottish engineer who became the first Principal of the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo in 1872.
Exhibitions with this item
Dai Nippon (Great Japan)
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