Keisai Eisen 渓斎英泉

To dream of falcons, eggplants, or Mount Fuji on New Year’s Eve is considered an auspicious omen for a happy year. This print is called a “Three Lucky Dreams” image because it combines all three omens at once.

Shown against the backdrop of a distant Mt. Fuji are a falcon on a rock and an eggplant growing nearby. Not only is this a beautiful work of kacho-ga (the “bird-and-flower” genre), but its traditional, auspicious composition promises a lucky first dream for the New Year. Completed in shades of blue, this sheet by Eisen belongs to a category of prints known as “indigo impressions” (aizuri). This technique first appeared as the printmakers’ response to the restrictive governmental edicts of the 1840s aimed, among other things, at rich polychromy, but it also had its own aesthetic appeal.

A dream of a falcon, eggplants, or Mt. Fuji on New Year’s Eve is considered an auspicious omen for a happy year. This print combines all three in a single image. The monochromatic color scheme probably indicates that the print was made soon after the introduction of “Prussian blue” pigment into the palette of Japanese printmakers in the late 1820s. This ink did not fade as easily as the blues used previously. Its extensive use here may be related to its novelty.