Title : The Fourth Month (Uzuki)

Artist : Suzuki Harunobu

Date : c. 1768

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Source : Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description : The design shows a young man in komuso (itinerant priest) guise standing before a barred window from which two girls are looking. He turns to watch the flight of a cuckoo bird overhead. The cloud pattern above includes the following verse: Ask people In the time of the fourth month To view the rustic fence Where the deutzia flowers are in full bloom Like butterflies.” The lining of the kimono and the obi has urushizumi, or lacquer pigment, that accentuates the figure's strong lines, but all of the other colors are natural. The fourth month would be about the time in Japan that spring becomes summer. (from Summer Evenings: Harunobu exhibition 5/30/06-)

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