Inner Palace of Edo Castle: New Year

Very good triptych of a charming scene of court ladies celebrating New Year.

A lady brings in a lacquer tray with the second course of a sumptuous New Year meal in three lacquered bowls to two noblewomen seated on the floor.

A scene from the series Chiyoda no o-oku (Inner Palace of Edo Castle), published Meiji 28-29 (1895-1896).

All the women wear elaborately embroidered silk kimono decorated with symbols of good luck: cranes, turtles and plums (right), fans and camellias (middle), and peonies (left).

The room is decorated with winter ikebana (probably a winter-blossoming camellia) and a shimenawa (a Shinto decoration made of foliage and paper) hanging from the alcove wall. A hibachi decorated with cranes is on the floor in front of the ladies.

Chikanobu, 1838-1912, also known as Chikanobu Toyohara, Hashimoto or Youshu, was a prolific Japanese painter and printmaker of the Meiji era. He worked in many genres including battle scenes, historical pictures, beauty pictures, famous sites, portraits, theatre, women's pastimes, etc.

Slight age-toning and surface dust to all three plates, especially on the edges, but very good impressions of the woodblocks in rich colour. Evidence of removal from a book on the verso of each print.