This work is comprised of 12 sets of bijinga painted by Utagawa Toyokuni III (1786-1864), depicting annual events and customs of Edo, which were divided into 3 works for each of the 12 months in a year. The title is written inside the black frame of the seal that symbolizes the Utagawa School. The publisher is Tsutaya Kichijo (蔦屋吉藏), who was granted the publication permits in April and June 1854. Utagawa Toyokuni III was a pupil of the first generation Utagawa Toyokuni, who initially used the pseudonym Kunisada and started to be referred to as Toyokuni since 1844. As a master of bijinga and portraits of actors, he had a long career in paintings and a large number of pupils. “Mōshun (孟春, “beginning of spring”)” refers to the first month of the lunar calendar. The painting depicts two beautiful women who are dancing the harukoma (春駒舞, “hobbyhorse dance”: a Japanese traditional play held in the first month of a year in which participants visit numerous houses while carrying a pole covered with a horse-shaped mask) on stage set up in front of a thickly plastered paper screen door painted with small pine trees, and to their right is a woman who is playing music on a red carpet in front of a screen painted with a blossoming plum tree. Small pine trees, plum blossoms, and harukoma are all related to the first month of the lunar calendar. This is presumed to be an imaginary painting that depicts a kabuki performance held at a banquet, wishing for happiness and fortune in the first month of the year. The patterns of plovers and swirls drawn on the belt worn as part of the performer’s costume, which is designed with horizontal stripes, bear relevance with the Sawamura (澤村) family, a prestigious kabuki family. Peonies are drawn on the sleeves of a beautiful woman on the right, along with a reading table made using the makie (lacquer craft sprinkled with gold or silver powder) technique. The bottom part of the carpet is painted with a peony arabesque design, which is presumed to have related to the Ichikawa (市川) family, a prestigious kabuki family.(en)
