Artist: Toyohara Kunichika (豊原国周, 1835–1900) Title: Seventh Month, Tanabata Festival (七月七夕祭) Series: Genji Gosekku no Uchi (源氏五節句之内, Five Seasonal Festivals in Genji Style) Date: 1860s Format: Ōban triptych — three sheets, each ca. 36 x 24cm Technique: Nishiki-e (full-colour woodblock) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Condition: Very good impression with good, fresh colour throughout. The paper is firm with a subtle texture. Minor soiling noted; otherwise clean and presentable. Please refer to the images for full detail ---------------------------------------------------------------------- About the print A charming depiction of Mitsuuji — the "Country Genji" of Ryūtei Tanehiko's bestselling parody Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji — celebrating Tanabata, the Star Festival, held on the seventh day of the seventh month when the Weaver Maiden and the Herdboy stars cross the sky to meet for a single night. The young nobleman smiles as he writes a poem slip to hang on the bamboo decorations that wave over the rooftops throughout the composition; a girl kneels beside him with a writing set, poem slips ready on a lacquer tray. At far left, a beauty holds a string of ground cherries in their papery red husks while her companion binds bamboo branches to a pillar with tasselled cords, their colourful wish-papers fluttering against the summer sky. A great red festival streamer ribbons across the central sheet. The design belongs to Kunichika's earliest period, and therein lies its particular interest: the young artist is working entirely in the manner of his teacher Kunisada — the figure types, the dense textile patterning, the Genji subject matter itself are pure Toyokuni III school. Prints from these years, before Kunichika found the harder-edged Meiji style that would make his name, document the direct handover between the last great master of the Edo actor print and his most important successor. The gosekku — the five annual court festivals — were a favourite pictorial cycle in Edo art, and Tanabata, with its poems, wishes, and streaming decorations, the most picturesque of the five.