Summer Fair

Summer Fair presents the seasonal market or festival fair that was among the most vivid and socially important events of the Japanese summer — the combination of commerce, entertainment, food, and communal gathering that made these events central to urban social life. The summer fair, with its stalls of goods and food, its crowds in yukata, its games and performances, created a scene of layered visual interest that Mori could render with the multiple-figure compositional approach he had developed across his long career. The fair's festive energy was perfectly consonant with his celebration of Japan's popular cultural traditions.