Happy Tanabata

[asakiyume]

Since we don't have any bamboo handy, when the kids were little we'd attach our wishes to the branches of our birch tree or rhododendron bushes.

Here's a sweet illustration of what Tanabata celebrations used to look like in Edo-Period Japan. The artist is Sayuri Sasai; she posts on Instagram and Twitter. Here is her Tanabata post from Twitter:



(Link to tweet)

Her pictures of daily life during the Edo period are super charming (and informative!)--I think many of my Dreamwidth friends would like this one of an ukiyo-e artist who lives with cats:



(link to tweet)

If you'd like to see more of her work, here is her Instagram account--which is where she posts more of her pictures--and here is her Twitter account. (I posted from Twitter because the embed function from Instagram wasn't working on my browser.)

Comments

[sonia]

I love the happy child in the first image! And of course the cozy cats, including the one blithely pushing through the rice paper window just like the big dogs across the street have pushed through their upstairs window screen so they can see out better. Aww, just noticed the kitty cuddled in the artist's chest.

[asakiyume]

The artist's sense of place, personality, and detail are so wonderful. In the first picture, I also like the cat on the roof in the distance. And yes, that cozily curled-up kitten in the second!

[sonia]

Oh, yes, thank you for pointing out the cat on the roof!