Posted by Dan (24.58.4.235) on January 12, 2006 at 20:35:46:
In Reply to: help me identify this print posted by Frédéric S. on January 12, 2006 at 18:43:20:
Hello,
I haven't had time to look into this piece, but just to give you some first impressions:
--Your artist attribution (Yoshiiku) is correct.
--The print is a creped version of what was probably an oban print. Because of the creping, some of the textual areas have become harder to read.
--For example, the date seal is a little distorted, but seems to have aratame plus zodiac mark (1859-72) with what I see as month designation 8 plus "boar" (1863). The coloring is consistent with a late Edo/early Meiji date.
--The title is "Edo Sunago Kodomo Asobi" or "Children's Play in Glittering Edo". I couldn't quite get the subtitle though.
--The subtitle would give the exact context, likely with place, but the print depicts children giving a music and dance performance before a shrine. As one of the children wears a fox mask, this is no doubt an inari shrine. The occasion is almost certainly a late summer festival. The children have a colored lantern reading "Ujiko chuu", which identifies them as fellow members of the shrine community, worshipping the same Ujigami, or Shinto God.