The Fifth Month, Rain

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The Fifth Month, Rain

Artist Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, ca. 1724-1770)

Dateabout 1768

Dimensionssheet: 10 15/16 x 8 1/8 in. (27.8 x 20.6 cm)

Mediumcolor woodblock print

ClassificationPrints

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2004.35

Not on View

Label TextThe two tall beauties of the pleasure quarter carry towels and wear leg-revealing robes, apparently on their way to one of the public bathhouses. They pass a young girl, a courtesan-in-training. As the title of the series suggests, this design includes a play or parody between a classical poem associated with one of the four seasons and a contemporary scene. The poem, inscribed across the top of the print in a cloud-like register, reads: The downpour sometimes ceases; but the summer clouds even with sunlight remain in the sky.Published References"Recent acquisitions," Newsletter of the Decorative Arts Society, Inc., vol. 13, no. 1, Spring 2005, p. 18.Exhibition HistoryToledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Strong Women Beautiful Men: Japanese Portrait Prints from the Toledo Museum of Art, October 14, 2005 - January 2, 2006, pl. 7 (col.), p. 35.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Whistler: Influences, Friends, and the Not-So-Friendly, February 26 - May 30, 2010.

Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Strong Women Beautiful Men: Japanese Portrait Prints from the Toledo Museum of Art, August 28 - October 31, 2010, pl. 7 (col.), p. 35.

Comparative ReferencesSee also, Seishun no ukiyo-e shi Suzuki Harunobu - Edo no colourist tojo, Chiba City Museum of Art and Hagi Uragami Museum, 2002.

See also, Illustrated Catalogue of the Tokyo National Museum: Ukiyo-e Prints, 3 vols., Tokyo, 1960-1971.

See also, Teruji Yoshida, Harunobu Zenshu, Tokyo, 1942.