Night of Tanabata (14/45)
by Mayumi Oda
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- robynbuntin
Description
The Tanabata festival (七夕) — the seventh day of the seventh month when, according to tradition, the star-crossed lovers Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair) are permitted to cross the Milky Way and meet — rendered in Mayumi Oda's characteristic style of vibrant color and joyful female figures. Oda's treatment of this beloved Japanese festival subject brings her feminist iconography to a story that is fundamentally about longing, reunion, and the power of love to overcome the barriers that authority imposes. The night sky, the river of stars, and the figures crossing toward each other provide Oda with her characteristic compositional elements of flowing water, celestial bodies, and the female form in exuberant motion.
More Prints by Mayumi Oda
More Night Scenes Prints
Evening in East Africa
Woodblock print
Evening Shower at Teradomari (Teradomari no yau), from the series "Souvenirs of Travel, Second Series (Tabi miyage dai nishu)"
Teradomari no yau
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)"
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
Evening Moon at Nakanoshima, Sapporo (Sapporo Nakanoshima no yuzuki), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition (Nihon fukei shu higashi Nihon hen)"
March 1933
Color woodblock print; oban
Frequently Asked Questions
Night of Tanabata (14/45) was created by Mayumi Oda (小田真由美).
Night of Tanabata (14/45) depicts night scenes.