The City Flourishing, the Tanabata Festival
1857 · Woodblock print; ink and color on paper · Library of Congress, Washington, DC
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
- Year
- 1857
- Medium
- Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Original size
- 36.3 × 24.1 cm
- Collection
- Library of Congress, Washington, DC (impression LC-DIG-jpd-02925; many other impressions exist)
- Movement
- Ukiyo-e
- Series
- One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
Tall bamboo poles hung with paper decorations sway high above the rooftops of the city: a gourd, a slice of watermelon, a cup, a ledger and long streamers flutter against a pale sky. Below them the white walls and tiled roofs of Edo stretch toward a grey Fuji on the horizon. The print is number seventy-three in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, published by Uoya Eikichi, with a censor's seal of the seventh month of 1857, and it opens the autumn section. At the Tanabata festival, on the seventh day of the seventh month, households raised bamboo branches decorated with paper wishes and ornaments. The rooftop viewpoint lets the decorations float free across the sky; impressions vary in colour and condition.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
Pale sky with flicks of red, blue and yellow paper over grey roofs, for a family room, child's room or kitchen at 24×36 in natural wood. It pairs with Suidō Bridge and the Surugadai Quarter, another festival sky.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Ukiyo-e painting
- Era
- 19th century (1857)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cornflower blue, cream & beige
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- kitchen, kids room, living room, dining room, dorm room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, travelers, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×36. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The City Flourishing, the Tanabata Festival in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The City Flourishing, the Tanabata Festival painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
