五月幟図|Boy’s Day Carp Streamer and Shōki Banner
before 1870
Medium
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions
Image: 37 1/4 × 14 1/8 in. (94.6 × 35.8 cm) Overall with mounting: 73 × 19 1/4 in. (185.4 × 48.9 cm) Overall with knobs: 73 × 21 1/8 in. (185.4 × 53.7 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Culture & Period
Japan · Meiji period (1868–1911)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, 2018
Accession Number
2018.22
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Kawanabe Kyōsai’s *Boy’s Day Carp Streamer and Shōki Banner* captures a festive moment from Japan’s traditional calendar. Painted before 1870, early in the Meiji period, the hanging scroll depicts the colorful koinobori carp streamers and a banner of Shōki, the fierce demon-queller, both raised on the fifth day of the fifth month to celebrate boys’ strength and ward off misfortune. Kyōsai, celebrated for his lively brushwork and witty reinterpretations of folklore, brings these emblems to life with fluid ink lines and bright mineral colors on silk. The choice of medium is significant: silk’s smooth surface allows the pigments to glow while preserving the delicate gradations typical of Japanese hanging scrolls meant for seasonal display. Created just as Japan was opening to Western influence, the painting reflects a moment when artists like Kyōsai continued to honor long-standing customs even as society modernized. Today it offers viewers a vivid glimpse of Meiji-era festivity and the enduring appeal of protective and aspirational imagery in Japanese culture.
About the Artist
Kawanabe Kyōsai 河鍋暁斎 (Japanese) · 1831 –1889
Japanese, 1831–1889