The new year begins on the river.

In this ukiyo-e print, Utagawa Kuniyoshi shows two women on a boat at the Sumida River, their robes filling the foreground with red, black, teal and floral pattern. Behind them, the water opens toward the first sunrise of the year, with small figures crossing the bank and the morning landscape stretching into the distance.

It is a celebration scene, but not a loud one. The drama is in the textiles, the turn of the faces, the red sun rising over the river. Kuniyoshi makes the first morning of the year feel both ceremonial and beautifully ordinary.