Children's fireworks — Senko Hanabi

"Children's Fireworks — Senko Hanabi" (1896) depicts children playing with sparkler fireworks — the delicate senko hanabi (incense stick fireworks) that produced a small, fragile shower of sparks rather than the explosive bursts of larger fireworks. These miniature fireworks were traditional summer children's entertainments, their tiny fragile sparks a metaphor for the transience of beauty that has made them one of Japan's most beloved seasonal symbols. Shuntei renders the children gathered around the sparkler with the fascinated attention the small shower of light commanded.