Current Special Exhibition

Exhibition Overview

 

Admission Fees

• Not available for advance tickets and group discounts. *Reservations for groups, school events, etc. are not being accepted for the time being.

• Visitors may view the exhibition without reservations; please purchase tickets at the ticket counter on the first floor of the museum on the day of the exhibition.

• Junior high, high school, and university students (including technical college, vocational school, and special training college students) will be requested to show student ID.

• Adults 65 and over will be requested to show a document verifying age.

• Persons with a certificate such as the following plus one accompanying person are admitted at a discount charge: physical disability, intellectual disability, rehabilitation, mentally handicapped health and welfare, atomic bomb victim health notebook, etc. (Please show your certificate at time of admission.)

• Use of these tickets is limited to the day on which the exhibition is visited and allows you to see AURORA (Permanent Exhibition Room), too.

• Highlights
• List of Works
• Admission fee
• Exhibition leaflet

Key points of the Exhibition and Composition

Key points of the Exhibition

Key point 1：The Daishō were created by necessity! The calendar at that time changes every year, and the system was more complicated than that of today.
Key point 2：Boom in the Edo period! People began to distribute the calendars to their clients and friends like new-year’s cards today.
Key point 3：Many “stylish” works were produced! People got to order more gorgeously designed calendars to professional painters.

Composition

【Section 1 To Enjoy the Daishō】
1 The Edo Calendar
2 Patterns Used in the Daishō Calendars
3 Daishō Indicating the Months Without Numerals
◆【Section 2 Katsushika School Daishō】
◆【Section 3 The Daishō Challenge】

【Section 1 To Enjoy the Daishō】

Until Japan adopted the solar Gregorian calendar in 1873, it used a lunar-solar calendar (commonly called “the old calendar”). Under the old calendar, which were the long months (with 30 days) and which the short months (29 days) changed every year. To help people keep those months sorted out, privately commissioned prints with images that indicated the long and short months were produced. Those prints are now called picture calendars (egoyomi) or daishō (large-small, i.e., longer and shorter months). The daishō, far from simply indicating the number of days in each month, were created with clever admixtures of humor. To enjoy those daishō, very unfamiliar to us today, first we need to introduce the Edo period calendrical system. Next, we will categorize these calendars by the way that which months were long or short was concealed, to display them in an easy-to-understand way.

1 The Edo Calendar

Here we introduce the very different calendrical system used in the Edo period and the calendars based on it.

This regional calendar was issued by the calendar master at the Ise Grand Shrine. The shrine’s oshi priests distributed it along with amulets to supporters of the shrine throughout the country. It thus became the most typical calendar of the Edo period. The oshi were low-ranking priests who performed prayers for believers and helped those on pilgrimage to the shrine with lodgings and served as guides. This example begins with notes on the lucky and unlucky directions of that year and which months were longer or shorter. Starting with the first month, this calendar gives the zodiac sign for each day and information on the good or bad fortune associated with each direction that day.

2 Patterns Used in the Daishō Calendars

Distinct patterns were used to conceal the number of days in each month in the daishō calendars, which indicated the long and short months. Here we classify them into five types:
A. Daishō with the names of the months used to draw the motifs.
B. Daishō with the names of the months turned into texts.
C. Daishō with images containing the names of the months.
D. Daishō with the months in order.
E. Daishō with the names of the months in texts.
Knowing those five patterns, you will find it easy to decipher the daishō displayed in this exhibition.

 
Unknown, Tsuno Daishi
The Sumida Hokusai Museum (all terms)

Decode!

Tsuno Daishi is drawn with the characters 正, 三, 五, 十一, 八, 六 (1, 3, 5, 11, 8, 6). Those are the shorter months in 1786. (A. Daishō with the names of the months used to draw the motifs)

Tsuno Daishi (“the Honorable Horned Priest”) is the early Heian period Tendai sect priest Ryōgen, who grew horns and looked like a demon. Legend has it that during a plague epidemic, Ryōgen grew those horns, producing a demon-like appearance, to drive out the disease and save the people. As a result, amulets with depictions of Tsuno Daishi are regarded as warding off disease and other disasters.

 

Kubo Shunman, Rabbit Passenger on a River Taxi
The Sumida Hokusai Museum (2nd term)

Decode!

Rabbit in the picture. “Usaki” suggesting Usagi, meaning a rabbit, in the kyōka poem. “大のや“ in the tobacco tray. The kimono of the rabbit with ”五、十二、三、二、八、十一、正”. Among years of the rabbit, the months 1,2,3,5,8,11,12 were longer months in 1807, a fire-rabbit year. (A. Daishō with the names of the months used to draw the motifs)

Kubo Shuman is a student of Kitao Shigemasa and an ukiyo-e artist, known as a man of many talents who also worked on kyōka poem and haiku. The top of the torii gate can be seen beyond the bank in the upper left corner of the picture, which is Mimegri Shrine (Mukōjima, Sumida City) on the east bank of the Sumida River.

3 Daishō Indicating the Months Without Numerals

The five patterns for hiding the information about long and short months introduced thus far usually indicated which month was which using numbers, since, apart from the first month of the year (shōgatsu), months are named by number: month two, month three, and so on. Non-numerical approaches also exist, however, with special names for the months. The first month, for example, could also be called mutsuki. Annual events or other things clearly associated with certain months were also used in daishō to indicate the month: Girls’ Day in the third month, Boys’ Day in the fifth month, for example. Today, figuring out what scenes refer to what event in what month can be hard. Deciphering these daishō is often perplexing.

 

Unknown, Kagami-mochi and Saké Barrel
The Sumida Hokusai Museum (1st term)

Decode!

The first of these kyōka verses uses the names of types of mochi, glutinous rice confections, served at specific holidays or events, to indicate the months. “Large.” “seated,” for “seated mochi,” means kagami mochi, which signifies New Years. Lozenge (lozenge-shaped mochi) is offered at the hina doll display for Girls’ Day (3rd month). Kashiwa (oak) implies kashiwa mochi, oak-leaf mochi, which signifies Boys’ Day (5th month). Imo dango (potato dumpling) implies the “potato moon,” the full moon on the fifteenth of the 8th month (8th month). Gencho is another name for inoko mochi, “day of the boar mochi,” which is eaten when celebrating the day of the boar in the 10th month, under the old calendar (10th month). Iwai refers to iwai mochi, which may refer to mochi eaten in celebrating 7-5-3 in the 11th month. Kabitari mochi (dip in the river mochi) is prepared for the kabitari day of the water god festival, on the first day of the 12th month under the old calendar. The second verse includes the kanji for 2, small, 4, 6, 7, and repeat (repeating 7, an intercalary 7th month), and chrysanthemum (symbolizing the annual holiday in the 9th month). A year with months 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, and 12 the longer months and 2,4, 6, 7, intercalary 7, and 9 the shorter months would be 1797. (E. Daishō with the names of the months in texts, with some not indicated by their numbers.)

Section 2 Katsushika School Daishō

Early in the Meiwa era (1764-72), daishō became so popular that people held parties to exchange them. The person who came up with the idea for a humorous and witty daishō was probably not the artist who produced the design but the client who commissioned it. Ultimately, however, what sort of picture to use to express that concept was up to the artist, such as Katsushika Hokusai. During the ninety years of his life, Hokusai created most of his daishō between 1794 and 1804, in what is called his Sōri-style period. As you interpret these daishō by Hokusai and his students, please enjoy the ideas behind them.

　 

Katsushika Hokusai, Snowy Morning
The Sumida Hokusai Museum (all terms)
*Different print of the same title is displayed in 1st term and 2nd term.

Decode!

The kyōka poem contains the word “rooster,” one of the zodiac animals, and a rooster sits above the gate. The young woman’s obi sash has the names of the months 十, 正, 三, 七, 九, 十一, 十二 (10, 1, 3, 7, 9, 11, 12) on it. A year of the rooster with the longer months 1, 3, 7,9, 10, 11, and 12 was 1813, a water-rooster year. (C. Daishō with images containing the names of the months)

　

Katsushika Hokusai, Kintarō Feeding a Japanese Bush Warbler
The Sumida Hokusai Museum (1st term)

 

Decode!

The ax contains the kanji for “small” and, at the tip of the blade, 正, 五, 六, 八,十, and 十一 (the months 1, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11). In the year 1799, those were the short months. (C. Daishō with images containing the names of the months)

Section 3 The Daishō Challenge

Now you’ve encountered all sorts of daishō. Don’t you wonder how to decipher them by finding where the number of days in a month are hidden? Daishō were provided in a specific year so that people could learn how many days were in each of its months. For us, figuring out the number of days in each month in a daishō also lets us determine the year in which it was created. Please take up the challenge of deciphering the names of the months hidden in the daishō and solving the problem of the year for which it was created.

Unknown, Monkey Mask and Eye Mask
The Sumida Hokusai Museum (1st term)

 

Challenge!

This is the daisho of the fifth year of Kōka (1848) and the year of earth-monkey (Tsuchinoe-saru) in Chinese Zodiac. Therefore, the mask of monkey is depicted. Which one is the year of 1848 among the following? Could you decode it from this work?
①Longer months 1,3,4,6,8,12. Shorter months 2,5,7,9,10,11。
②Longer months 2,5,7,9,10,12. Shorter months 1,3,4,6,8,11。
③Longer months 2,5,7,9,10,11. Shorter months 1,3,4,6,8,12。
You can see the answer on display in the Exhibition Room during the 1st term.

 List of Works

List of Works

Admission fee

Tickets are available online for specific dates and times.
Skip the line at reception by booking in advance using the link below.
Note: Availability is limited.
 Official Online Ticket Site

・Visitors can also enter AURORA (Permanent Exhibition Room) and Permanent Exhibition Plus on the same day.
・Identification card is necessary to get a discount ticket.
・Admission for disabled visitor is also available for one accompanying person with a disabled person.

The Exhibition Leaflet

　

Title	Let’s Decode Calendars by Hokusai and Others!
Price	￥350 (tax included)
Format	Full Color/A4 size/8 pages in all
Release Date	December 18, 2024
Location	Museum Shop, 1F, Sumida Hokusai Museum