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Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)

The Twelfth Month: Making Mochi Cakes (Shiwasu: Mochitsuki), 1854

Description

Maker

  • Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III), 1786-1865, Japanese
  • Tsutaya Kichizō, Japanese, publisher

Title

The Twelfth Month: Making Mochi Cakes (Shiwasu: Mochitsuki)

Year

1854

Medium

Polychrome woodblock triptych

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • color,
  • ink

Techniques

  • wood block,
  • woodcut

Supports

  • paper

Dimensions

Overall: 36 x 74.5 cm (14 3/16 x 29 5/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Toyokuni ga

Place

Japan; Tokyo

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Prints

Credit

Gift of Marshall H. Gould

Object Number

30.039.5

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Kunisada's Twelve Month Series

October 10, 2008 - February 1, 2009

In this final month of the winter season, preparations for the New Year festivities are underway as five women and a man make rice cakes (mochi) in the kitchen. Auspicious symbols of the coming year appear as small details: the turtle of long life is depicted on the fan of the woman on the left, and gourds, a symbol of good luck, are visible on the sliding screens behind her.

The publisher has included his mark on the lantern on the right as a form of self-advertisement. Similar lanterns appear in the print for The Seventh Month.

Kunisada's Twelve Months

March 7 - May 3, 1997

The Twelve Months at Home

March 27 - May 17, 1992

Related

Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)

The twelfth month: Making mochi cakes (Shiwasu: Mochizuki), 1854.6

Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)

The twelfth month: Making mochi cakes (Shiwasu: Mochizuki), 1854.6

Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)

The twelfth month: Making mochi cakes (Shiwasu: Mochizuki), 1854.6

More objects +

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is The Twelfth Month: Making Mochi Cakes (Shiwasu: Mochitsuki) with the accession number of 30.039.5. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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