This nishiki-e is one of a twelve-picture series depicting annual events and people's lives that changed with the seasons, from January to December, modeled on beautiful women in Edo (present-day Tokyo) in the early 19th century.

This picture represents January. The title is in the top left-hand corner. It shows two young women having their first dancing practice of the New Year to a shamisen accompaniment. The dance is "Harukoma" and it brings a wish for health and prosperity throughout the year.

The two dancers are each holding a horse's head puppet with a scarf representing a bridle. Their long-sleeved kimonos have a pattern of plovers, waterfowl which from ancient times have represented winter in Japan. Their red under-garments have a hemp-leaf pattern, a popular motif in those days as hemp is a strong fast-growing plant. Their black obi have swirls of water-waves. The screens in the background show young pines and full-blown ume (Japanese apricot) blossoms. The pine tree has a strong life force and signifies prosperity, while the ume, which blossoms in the coldest season, is the flower which celebrates the New Year in Japan. This happy and brilliant scene symbolizes the New Year.

At the bottom of the picture are printed the artist's name, the year of publication and the publisher's name, and also the name of the print engraver.

Utagawa Toyokuni III (1786-1864) was an ukiyo-e artist working around the same time as Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). He was a prolific artist who produced many book illustrations as well as ukiyo-e.

*You can see the whole images of the twelve-month calendar in the Rare Books Image Database (Japanese only) in the NDL website: select [] and put [] in the title box. (How to use Rare Books Image Database)

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