風流てらこ 吉書はじめ けいこの図

japanese
komonjo
Edo commoners practicing writing in a terako
Published

June 18, 2026

風流てらこ 吉書はじめ けいこの図

I found this lovely image of Edo commoners practicing writing in a terako, in this case auspicious writing done at the New Year. It was published as an Ukiyo-e (mass produced from wood block color separations) in 1804. The artist is Utagawa Toyokuni I. See First Calligraphy Class of the New Year at a Fashionable School (Fûryû terako kissho hajime keiko no zu) at Boston Museum of Fine Arts

I customized a version of the image for printing (modified contrast and scaled). I got a very nice result by printing this onto matte poster 17x11 at Fedex, for $17.00.

Download printable image (PNG, 30MB)

The source file I used for the full triptych is at Boston MFA’s Ukiyo-e.org.