Description
Elegant kuchi-e (口絵) frontispiece depicting a woman who, according to the Shinto tradition, is drawing water from a well with which she fills a new ceremonial bucket decorated with New Year’s ornaments and which she will use for domestic ritual purifications for the beginning of the year.
The work, entitled “Fresh New Year’s Water” (わか水), was made in January 1907 by the artist Takeuchi Keishu (武内桂舟) and is taken from vol. 13 n. 1 of the famous literary magazine Bungei Kurabu (文芸倶楽部).
The print on Japanese washi paper (和紙), produced by the Hakubunkan (博文館) publishing house, despite the presence of the right signs of aging and the folds deriving from the binding, is in overall good condition.
