Parody of Minamoto no Tametomo

1765

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 26.7 × 20 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A youth with a bow and arrows plays the archer-hero Tametomo as two women kneel beside him.

The year name and “Meiwa 2” flank his neckband.
Long-month numbers sit in his lining; short ones are white bamboo leaves on the dark robe by the screen.
Like other 1765 calendars, it hides the dates in the design.

Year name: One of sixty cyclical names for years, repeating every sixty years.
Meiwa 2: The second year of the Meiwa era, 1765; Japan counted years by era names.

Image: The Met Open Access · Public domain (Met Open Access)