First Day of Autumn (Risshu)

Suzuki Harunobu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In old Japan, autumn comprised the seventh, eighth, and ninth months of the lunar calendar. The print shows a woman in the blue-and-white striped "yukata" and a girl looking through the open "shoji" at the right, where bamboo and poem-slip decorations for the Tanabata Festival (seventh day of the seventh month) are seen above the housetops. The lantern hanging outside the "shoji" is also a Tanabata decoration.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art