Dance of the Harvest Festival (Hônen mansaku odori)
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston
- Image courtesy of
- Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Description
This print depicts a harvest festival dance (hônen mansaku odori), a communal agricultural ritual celebrating an abundant harvest. Kyosai was drawn to festive and theatrical subjects throughout his career, and his renderings of dancers typically capture mid-movement rather than posed stasis. Festival costumes with bold patterns — happi coats, straw ornaments, or oni masks — would have required multiple color blocks to reproduce the visual density of folk performance dress. The composition likely arranges multiple figures in procession or circular formation. As one of two prints sharing this title, it may represent either a different compositional arrangement or a variant state from the same series.
More Prints by Kawanabe Kyosai
from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu)
Woodblock print
Old Picture of the Rashômon Gate (Rashômon no ko zu), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho tsuzuki
Woodblock print
Tsukishimadera Temple in Hyôgo (Hyôgo Tsukishimadera), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho no uchi
Woodblock print
from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu)
Woodblock print
More Festivals Prints
Frequently Asked Questions
Dance of the Harvest Festival (Hônen mansaku odori) was created by Kawanabe Kyosai (河鍋暁斎).
Dance of the Harvest Festival (Hônen mansaku odori) depicts festivals.