Christmas Card 2008

[ Japanese ]
Children's play: kite-flying competition in the New Year "Kodomo-asobi takoage-kurabe"
Price  :  180 yen
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Children's play: kite-flying competition in the New Year
Children's play: kite-flying competition in the New Year "Kodomo-asobi takoage-kurabe"
Prited by Utagawa Yoshitora, the first year of Keio(1865)
The picture of this card is from Waseda University Library collections.

Kite-flying is inseparably associated with traditional Japanese New Year. Children are flying innumerable kites high in the blue sky. What a peaceful view! However, a closer look shows that each of the kites has a name from among the various necessities of life, such as rice, soybean paste, other groceries, etc. The nishikie(color woodblock print) thus caricatures the rampant inflation (prices rising like kites) in the last years of the Tokugawa period.
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First drafted October 30, 2008
Last revised October 30, 2008