Taking shelter from the Rain

Catalog note / 解説

This print was conserved with the support of the Robert F. Lange Foundation. Here we see revelers trying to make their way through small square passageways that have been cut into large pillars. Legend has it that if one is able to wriggle through such a hole, which is supposed to be the size of the nostril of the Great Buddha (Birushana), she or he can ascend to the brain (i.e., wisdom) of the Buddha. Another version of the legend says that one will be granted long life for climbing through the pillar. The figures featured in this print are too well-to-do to be Yaji or Kita (who could never afford the company of courtesans), but they are enjoying the same amusements that the Adventures Dow…