Kites - Japan

Date: 1847 - 1991

By: Utagawa, Kuniyoshi, 1797-1861; National Diet Library (Japan)

Reference: B-090-007

Description: "Here Kuniyoshi vividly presents the typical scene on the New Year Day of the Edo period, boldly drawing in the center a big kite with a picture of Bodhidarma and some children playing with it. Around the kite there stand out three pairs of mother and child, one in the middle on their way to take the first bath in the year, another on the right to play battledore-and-shuttlecock and still another on the left watching kites flying. Seen fa[r]ther away, among others, are a merchant drawing a cart loaded with the first cargo and the symbolic Mt Fuji looming beyond the cloud. The people of the Edo period in the mid-19th century particularly loved colorful ukiyo-e prints and pictures of valiant and vigorous warriors. This picture beautifully represents the emotional feelings of the people in those days". Scope and contents notes taken from accompanying sheet, which is housed with the triptych and its envelope. Quantity: 3 colour photo-mechanical print(s) triptych in folder, with envelope.. Physical Description: Photolithographs (three) each 374 x 251 mm, mounted as a triptych in folder, 473 x 900 mm.