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The Tenth Month (Koharu), from the series Fashionable Twelve Months (Fûryû jûni tsuki no uchi)


「風流十二月ノ内 小春」
Utagawa Kunisada I (Toyokuni III) (Japanese, 1786–1864)
Publisher: Moriya Jihei (Kinshindô) (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
late 1820s–early 1830s

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical ôban; 36.6 x 25.4 cm (14 7/16 x 10 in.)
Credit Line Nellie Parney Carter Collection—Bequest of Nellie Parney Carter
Accession Number34.438
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

In the tenth month, many households celebrated the festival of Ebisu, the god of good fishing, with offerings of sake and fish. In this print, a mother uses an assortment of combs to dress her little daughter’s hair for the festival, while the child amuses herself by playing with the cat. The cat, however, is now trying to escape the child’s embrace, perhaps in the hope of investigating the luscious red snapper displayed in the background before the image of the god.

Catalogue Raisonné Kumon Kodomo Kenkyûjo, Ukiyo-e no kodomotachi/ Children Depicted in Ukiyoe (1995), #32-10; the series: Schaap, Kunisada (exh. cat., 2016), checklist 1-74
Signed Kôchôrô Kunisada ga
香蝶楼国貞画
Marks Censor's seal: kiwame
改印:極
Provenance1934, bequest of Nellie Parney Carter to the MFA. (Accession Date: October 4, 1934)