Greeting the Rising Sun on New Year's Day

Greeting the Rising Sun on New Year's Day, designed by Isoda Koryusai in 1769, presents the Edo custom of hatsuhinode, the auspicious viewing of the first sunrise of the year. A young woman, or pair of figures, stands at a vantage point — perhaps a coastal road, a temple precinct, or a residential terrace — watching the sun climb over the horizon, while the suggestion of seasonal pine sprigs, plumes of smoke from a brazier, or sprays of plum blossom anchor the image firmly in shogatsu observances. Koryusai uses the rising sun as a graphic device: a clean circular reserve in the keyblock, surrounded by carefully gradated bokashi sky tones, against which the dark silhouettes of the figures and any seasonal accessories stand out. The print belongs to the period around 1769–1770 in which, following Suzuki Harunobu's death, Koryusai emerged as one of the principal designers of Edo bijin-ga, refining the figural conventions of his teacher's circle while pushing toward the bolder, more substantial bodies that would mark the Hinagata Wakana no Hatsumoyo courtesan series at the end of the decade. The Art Institute of Chicago impression (object 23076) is a chuban nishiki-e with characteristic Meiwa-era colour balance: warm reds and ochres in the rising sun and figures' robes, indigo bokashi sky, and clean white-paper highlights. As both a seasonal print suited to New Year hanging and a vignette of contemporary Edo custom, the design exemplifies Koryusai's capacity to translate calendrical ritual into the refined visual idiom of the early nishiki-e print. Source: Art Institute of Chicago, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/23076.