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Tanabata Festival


七夕遊びに興じる遊女と若衆
Torii Kiyomasu I (Japanese, active about 1696–1716)
Publisher: Iseya Kinbei (Japanese)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1718 (Kyôhô 3)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (beni-e); ink on paper, with hand-applied color
Dimensions Hosoban; 21.5 x 30.2 cm (8 7/16 x 11 7/8 in.)
Credit Line Denman Waldo Ross Collection
Accession Number06.1322.3
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints
A Yoshiwara courtesan and her young lover are preparing decorations for the Tanabata festival on the seventh day of the seventh month. A playful kamuro (child attendant of a courtesan) has arranged two bamboo stalks in the shape of a boat, which she pretends to row along the River of Heaven (the Milky Way). The festival commemorates the annual meeting of two heavenly lovers who are separated by the river and allowed to come together just once each year.

Catalogue Raisonné Ukiyo-e shûka 1 (1983), pl. 21
Signed Torii Kiyomasu zu
鳥居清倍図
ProvenanceMarch 8, 1906, gift of Denman Waldo Ross