December; End of the Year Market

December — End of the Year Market depicts the year-end shopping rush — the toshi no ichi or year-end market — when urban households made their final purchases of food, household goods, and New Year's decorations in the bustling atmosphere of December's closing days. The market's combination of commercial energy, social encounter, and seasonal urgency made it one of the most vivid of urban genre subjects, its stalls and crowds providing Mori with a scene of multiple simultaneous activities that rewarded the kind of detail-rich compositions he favored. The year-end market carried a quality of bittersweet finality — the last commercial event of a departing year.