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Five Bijin celebrating the New Year
Five Bijin celebrating the New Year

Five Bijin celebrating the New Year

Artist (Japanese, 1781–1801)
Date1790
MediumWoodblock print
PeriodEdo period (1603-1867)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Libertson
Terms
  • Woodblock print
  • Woodblock print
  • Bamboo
  • Bonsai trees
  • Celebrations
  • Combs
  • Costume
  • Events
  • Flowers
  • Hair ornaments
  • Hats
  • Headgear
  • Holidays
  • Interiors
  • Jars
  • Kimonos
  • Ladles
  • New Year
  • Obis
  • Pine trees
  • Plants
  • Plum blossoms
  • Plum trees
  • Seasons
  • Spring
  • Trays
  • Winter
  • Japanese
Object number2000.156.002
Label CopyThe New Year festival is the most important in the Japanese round of seasonal celebrations. Here Shuncho has taken us inside the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters to show an idealized New Year’s Day celebrated by five bijin (“beautiful women”). One courtesan brings a tray of New Year’s delicacies for the group to enjoy. Prominent is the inclusion of shochikuba, the Three Friends of the Cold Season: pine, bamboo and blossoming plum, auspicious symbols of the New Year.
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