Kingyo-sukui (Goldfish scooping game)

This print is by Kiyohara Hitoshi (清原斉; 1896 - 1956) and entitled Kingyo-sukui (金魚掬い; Goldfish scooping game). Kingyo-sukui is a popular traditional game at summer festivals. Kiyohara Hitoshi published several children’s picture books in the 1930s–1950s in addition to producing nihonga (日本画) or “Japanese style-paintings.”

A print showing children playing kingyo-sukui (金魚掬い; Goldfish scooping game), provided by a man under a yellow tent with four bowls of orange, and a few black, goldfish. The child to the left is walking away with a bowl of two orange goldfish. She has a red bow in her hair and is wearing yukata (浴衣; summer kimono) that has a pattern of dark blue birds with light blue crescent shapes on a white background. The next child is crouching down holding a circular blue and white uchiwa (団扇) fan. She has a pink bow in her hair and is wearing yukata that has a green floral pattern. Another child is leaning forward with her right hand at her waist. She has two red and pink bows in her hair and is wearing pink yukata. The child on the right side is kneeling down and wearing red and white yukata. The man is wearing a white headband, a white shirt, and grey pants. He is holding a net with goldfish in his right hand and a container with goldfish in his left hand as he sits on a flat, rectangular brown pad, while leaning forward. The background is grey. The artist’s red rectangular seal and his signature in Japanese, ひとし in black, appear at the upper right side. The print is horizontally rectangular.