Comment - Lady "Senkichi" (Shin hashi-ritsu Asami Senkichi, 新はし立浅見仙吉) holds a hanetsuki racket (traditional Japanese badminton) and the girl "Sanko" (Dō-san-ko (同さん子) is playing with a ball. Both traditional pasttimes played by girls and women during New Year's festivities. The names of Senkichi and Sanko are written in the respective red cassettes. A kadomatsu pine decorates the New Year's scene. The upper left cassette with an unread poem by Minamoto Muneyuki Ason, contains an Edo kite ("Edo-tako", "江戸凧") with white kanji character on a blue background (Kanji kite, "ji tako", "字凧").

The print seems to be No. 19 of the series. Each print or this series pairs a poem by one of the "Thirty-six Immortal Poets" with well-known contemporary beauties. The "enchanting flowers" of the series title, involved in daily activities. The women are shown playing music, taking a dancing lesson, greeting a visitor, or strolling outdoors. These vibrantly colored, beautifully detailed woodblocks offer a charming look at Meiji era life. Although the beauties wear traditional dress, look for signs of modernization, like Western-style cloth umbrellas, modern buildings with glass windows, European-style carpets, and even a train or a western bathing tub (see above).

Several authors were responsible for the texts and the selection of the poems in the upper title cassettes, divided into three sections, but most of them have Mantei Oga as the author. Its distinctive seal with the Swastika cross (Manji (卍), in Japanese the sign for "man" (meaning 10,000) an the symbol for Buddhist temples, is unmistakable. The poems are not read.


Series -  Unusual Kunichika series titled "Embellishments for a Set of 36 Flowers" (36 Immortal Poets) ("Enshoku Sanjurokukasen", "潤色三十六花選"). The designs in this series have two poems at the top in a rectangular cassette (not read) with a red rim, and pictures of geishas in various activities at the bottom.


Artist - see Biography


Signature - "drawn by Toyohara KUNICHIKA" ("Toyohara KUNICHIKA hitsu", "豊原国周筆"), (white cassette, lower left side) with his red ring seal ("toshidama-shirushi", "年玉印").


Publisher - Takegawa Seikichi (武川清吉)


Image Size - 35.9 x 24.4 cm   (14 1/8" x 9 5/8" + margins as shown) plus margins as shown


Condition - single panel; nishiki-e (cloured woodblock); Vertical ôban (ôban tate-e);