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a card for  | |||
 | A JOYOUS CHRISTMAS SEASON! KURISUMASU OMEDETOU!  (MP3) Christmas 1945, at Urakami Cathedral, Nagasaki. (See Acknowledgements.) Views: then (1, 2, 3) and now (1, 2, 3). | This Nativity scene was painted for Vatican City's Christmas postage stamp issue of 1964. The artist's name is Ko(u)seki Kimiko. Complete Silent Night heard on Radio Japan: Kiyoshi kono yoru (MP3) (Japanese text of this version) | |
and a nengajou ( ) for the New Year | |||
  | The small (8.5 x 13 cm) print (far left) was made in the 1950s. It shows a street of Gion district, Kyoto, under winter snow. The view is toward Yasaka Pagoda, with traditional New Year motifs: pine decorations (kadomatsu) by the gate, girls in kimono playing badminton with batttledore (hagoita) and shuttlecock (hane), boys flying kites. Plus a snowman (yukidaruma). Compare a present-day view farther to the south (near left). | ||
;  ;  | For 2025/Reiwa 7, Happy Year of the Snake! The New Year greeting in the left-hand image is blown on the breeze pushing the takarabune ship of good fortune, ridden by the seven divinities of good luck (the shichifukujin). On the right is a partial view of the common rat snake drawn by the artist Hokusai (1760-1849). He included a snake in the two pages of his sketchbooks (manga) devoted to insects and other "crawling" animal life (mushi). As always, there is a vivid sense of life in his image, whether or not the details are precise. Compare the carefully delineated scales of the rat snake in the elegant picture book (ehon) of Utamaro (1753-1806; see Yasuko Betchaku and Joan B. Mirviss, Songs of the Garden, New York, 1984; online at
Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Click on each image to the left for a full view of each. 
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