HIROSHIGE UTAGAWA I, Edo 1797 - 1858
The City Flourishing Tanabata Festival, Shichû han'ei Tanabata Matsuri, The City Flourishing Tanabata Festival.
Nishiki-e. Color woodcut, signed on the plate: Hiroshige hitsu
Series: Meisho Edo Hyakkei The Hundred Views of Edo n. 73
Date: 1857, fourth month
Format: oban tate-e (mm. 354x236)
Publisher: Uoya Eikichi.
Censor: aratame, Snake 7
Bibliography: Sakai, Hiroshige Edo fûkei (1996), list #12.8, pls. 216-217; Smith & Poster, 100 Views (1986), #73; Ukiyo-e shûka 14 (1981), Hiroshige list, p. 250, vertical ôban #62.47; Genshoku ukiyo-e dai hyakka jiten 5 (1980), #43
Museum of Fine Art Boston: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/206757
Brooklyn Museum: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/it-IT/objects/121687
Splendid proof with excellent colors. Printed on Japanese paper, datable to the second half of the 19th century. In perfect condition. With good margins all around beyond the marginal line. Slight traces of central fold.
Tanabata , meaning “the seventh night,” is a traditional Japanese festival celebrating the legendary meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi , incarnations of the stars Vega and Altair . Separated from the Milky Way by the will of the Heavenly King, the two lovers can meet only once a year, on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month .
The date of the festival varies depending on the region: in some places the lunisolar calendar is followed, celebrating it at the beginning of August , in others on 7 July .
During Tanabata, the streets fill with colorful decorations and paper lanterns , and tanzaku – thin strips of paper on which wishes and poems are written, facing the stars – are hung on bamboo branches. In the evening, many join in the celebrations wearing the traditional yukata , among lights, music and hopes entrusted to the sky.