Artist: Katsushika Hokusai
Date: 1844
Museum: Fukuda Art Museum (Kyoto, Japan)
Technique: Silk
“Tango” means the fifth day of the fifth month in the lunar calendar (in the current June) and falls on the turn of the season said to be an inauspicious time of the year when disasters or diseases are frequent. For the purpose of driving them out, people decorated the room with armor and iris flowers with a powerful aroma. In this drawing, the armor is decorated on a mount patterned with Japanese plums in gold on the black lacquer. Iris flowers wrapped with a silver foil paper are tied with a string beneath them. Delicate drawing recreating textures is made for a decoration of a dragon on the top of the armor, a visor covering the forehead, a sharkskin around the neck, strings of plates attached to the back and sides of the bottom of the armor, petals of iris flowers, and wrapping paper. They are as realistic as if craftworks were attached right to the screen. This work shows that Hokusai’s observant eye and his power to recreate objects were not weakened even at the age of 85, and we can feel his extraordinary will towards his art.
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