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Artist: Unknown

Title: Toro Nagashi (Floating Lanterns which Symbolize a Spirit Sendoff)

Date: 1961

Edition: Early Ed., 120/300, Collection Label on verso

Sig./Seal: Mikumo Publishers Red Seal, 'Mikumo' in pencil/numbered

Condition: Excellent, ink in L margin, no harm paper abrasion in T margin

Size: 19.5 x 15                               $395

Toro Nagashi

The ceremony of Toro Nagashi (literally, “floating lanterns”) is a Buddhist tradition held to celebrate the end of Obon season. Toro Nagashi can be a smaller family affair to remember lost family members or a much bigger event to memorialize those who have been lost to natural disasters, war, and other causes. Toro Nagashi officially begins at the moment the ancestors commence their return to the spirit world. Communities come together to guide the spirits down to the sea using traditional candle-lit lanterns (toro). Toro nagashi is to send off a spirit to the other world), so the lanterns visually represent the spirits’ send off to the other world.

Mikumo is the name of the Japanese publishing house founded by Mikumo Mokuhansha in 1921. It currently still operates as a publisher of various woodblock artists, including Inagaki Nenjiro, Ogo Tomonosuke, Kawabe Atushi, Minagawa Taizo, Chiudo Kenichi, and many others who were also often textile designers and ceramicists. Woodblock prints from this publishing house will often be found with the artist's red seal but with the name "Mikumo" pencil written in the margin to signify the publisher - a common occurance in the traditional Japanese print world.

Unknown Artist Toro Nagashi (Floating Lanterns Symbolize a Spirit Sendoff) d1961

$395.00Price
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