The decorated city, the Tanabata festival &;; lt; by Utagawa Hiroshige

The Tanbata-Matsuri holiday is one of the most romantic holidays in Japan. It is of Chinese origin. In Japan it has been celebrated since the Nara period. Celebrate it on the seventh day of the seventh month. According to custom, freshly cut bamboo was decorated with colored paper ribbons, on which they wrote poems dedicated to the Celestial Weaver Weaver Tanabata and Volopas Hikoboshi. Separated from her lover, Tanabata can only meet him once a year, passing through the bridge formed by a flock of forty, through the celestial river – the Milky Way.

During the Edo period, this holiday became a nationwide character, in the time of Hiroshige, not only the houses and gardens of citizens, but the entire city were decorated. Various benign symbols were attached to the bamboo poles: a bottle in the form of pumpkin gourds for sake, wine bowls, a piece of watermelon, abacus sorbon, a box for money with the inscription “fabulous wealth”, colorful strips of paper with poems. A fire tower is visible from the far right, and behind it is Edo Castle. In the center rises Fuji. Hiroshige managed to create in the engraving atmosphere of the holiday.

In the later edition of this engraving, brightness and high intensity of color appear, which is typical for almost all later sheets. In addition, in the image of Mount Fuji there is a color stretch from gray to darker gray-blue.