"O'Fuko throwing beans for good luck and to drive the girls away on New Years Eve"
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Library of Congress
- Image courtesy of
- Library of Congress
This print depicts Otafuku — also called Okame or O'Fuko — the comic female deity of good fortune recognizable by her round face, high forehead, and small features, performing the Setsubun bean-throwing ritual (mamemaki). Traditionally conducted on the eve of the first day of spring in the old calendar, Setsubun involves casting roasted soybeans to expel demons (oni) and invite fortune, accompanied by the cry Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! (Demons out! Fortune in!). The title adds a comic layer: O'Fuko is described as driving away girls rather than demons with her scattered beans, a social joke aligned with the self-deprecating humor long associated with this figure in Edo-period popular culture and kyōga caricature. Kiyochika renders the scene with the lively, accessible idiom he employed in genre subjects, distinguishing it from the tonal atmospheric work of his urban landscape series. The dynamic scattering gesture likely provides the print's central compositional energy.
1890s
Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper
1897 (Meiji 30)
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
1896 (Meiji 29)
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
1896 (Meiji 29)
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
"O'Fuko throwing beans for good luck and to drive the girls away on New Years Eve" was created by Kobayashi Kiyochika (小林清親).
"O'Fuko throwing beans for good luck and to drive the girls away on New Years Eve" depicts daily life.
