Image

A woodblock print in muted tones of five children dancing and playing beneath festive rope streamers. A small display of pine, lobster, and oranges is on the right.

Torii Kiyonaga

New Year

Description

Maker

Torii Kiyonaga (Japanese, 1752-1815)
Ezakiya Kichibei 江崎屋吉兵衛 (Japanese, 1773 - 1852), publisher

Title

New Year
from the series Children Games of the Five Festivals (Kodakara gosetsu asobi)
Kodakara gosetsu asobi

Period

Edo (Japanese period)

Year

ca. 1794

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

ink, color

Supports

Geography

Place Made: Japan; Place Made: Tokyo

Dimensions

Vertical ōban: 37.8 x 25.2 cm (14 7/8 x 9 15/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signature: Kiyonaga ga

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke

Object Number

20.1122

Type

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Striking Chords
Music in *Ukiyo-E* Prints
Feb 05, 2022 – Jul 31, 2022

Label copy

Five children celebrate the new year in their finery, surrounded by seasonal adornments that promise abundance, prosperity, and longevity. Enacting the Manzai, a traditional performance to welcome in the New Year, one boy plays the hand drum and the other dances with a fan under a stretched rope (shimenawa) that holds tufts of straws, paper streamers, and fern fronds. Children in the foreground enjoy traditional new-year toys-a kite, a battledore and shuttlecock, and a handball (temari). On the right, a festive display featuring a miniature pine tree, a lobster, and piles of mandarin oranges adds to the ambience and symbolism of this observance.

Edo Culture as Reflected in Japanese Woodblock Prints
Sep 22, 1994 – Dec 15, 1994

Related

Related

Torii Kiyonaga

Tango (5th day of the 5th month; the Boy's Festival) (Tango), Edo (Japanese period)

More objects +

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Torii Kiyonaga (Japanese, 1752-1815)
Ezakiya Kichibei 江崎屋吉兵衛 (Japanese, 1773 - 1852), publisher
New Year; from the series Children Games of the Five Festivals (Kodakara gosetsu asobi); Kodakara gosetsu asobi, ca. 1794
Polychrome woodblock print
Vertical ōban: 37.8 x 25.2 cm (14 7/8 x 9 15/16 inches)
Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke 20.1122

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.