Tanabata Dance

The block for this sumizuri-e print was carved by Kiyonobu in 1698, but the surviving impression at the Art Institute of Chicago was struck around 1915 from the original woodblock, then in the possession of a Japanese collector. The image depicts a dance performed at the Tanabata festival in early autumn, when Japanese tradition holds that the celestial weaver-princess and her cowherd lover are briefly reunited across the Milky Way. The composition demonstrates Kiyonobu's range beyond strictly theatrical subjects: the figures are drawn with the same forceful contours he reserved for kabuki actors, but the festival setting and the looser arrangement of bodies suggest a more genre-like, observational impulse. Later impressions taken from original Genroku-era blocks are a curiosity of the print market - they preserve the underlying design while inevitably differing from the original publications in paper, ink, and printer's technique.