Risshu (The Start of Autumn), from the series Fuzoku shiki kasen (The Series of Popular Versions of the Immortal Poets in the Four Seasons) , 1768

Suzuki Harunobu (1725?-1770) Risshu (The Start of Autumn), from the series Fuzoku shiki kasen (The Series of Popular Versions of the Immortal Poets in the Four Seasons), 1768 Woodcut set within a room just off a veranda of a courtesan fresh from the bath, her striped robe slipped casually off her left shoulder and held loosely by her child attendant as both are distracted by something outside; the red rooftops decorated with bamboo branches and green branches strung with poem slips suggest the Tanabata Festival on the seventh day of the seventh month, the event mentioned in the poem above in the cloud cartouche when the separated lovers the Herd Boy and Weaver Girl meet across the span of the Milky Way; a tasseled kiriko lantern for the festival hangs from the eave, the suspended cloth enhanced by embossing--very good impression, original color faded and minute foxing though the general condition appears good chuban tate-e: 10¾ x 8in. (27.5 x 20.5cm.) The poem reads: Asakaranu chigiri koso omou Amanogawa; ose wa toshi no hitoyo naredomo Joined in the River of Heaven only once a year reminds me how tenuous is my own troth. The Start of Autumn represents the seventh month in a set of thirteen prints devoted to the twelve months (there are two prints for the fourth month).