The Sixth Month (<i>Minazuki</i> - 水無月) from the series <i>The Twelve Months</i> (<i>Jūnika tsuki no uchi</i> - 十二ヶ月の内)
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Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)

The Sixth Month (Minazuki - 水無月) from the series The Twelve Months (Jūnika tsuki no uchi - 十二ヶ月の内)

Print

1851
10 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) color woodblock print
Signed: Toyokuni ga (豊国画)
Publisher: Minatoya Kohei (Marks 332 - seal 24-074)
Censor seals: Mera and Watanabe
Ukiyoe ni kiku
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
National Diet Library Minazuki is the month of no water which follows a very rainy period. In the old Japanese calendar it corresponded roughly to July when things begin to dry out.

"In the luni-solar calendar, summer extended from the Fourth Month through the Sixth Month (the equivalent of May 5 to August 6). The arrival of summer was marked by intense heat and high humidity in the Nara and Kyoto areas. Koromogae (changing to summer clothes), the annual custom that marks the arrival of summer, is a time of regret..."

Quoted from: Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts by Haruo Shirane, p. 38.

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In The Asahina Battle Chronicle, part 5 from 1522 there is a hokku which reads:
minazuki wa
kachibito naranu
seze no nashi

The Waterless Month-
no victor who does not cross on foot,
as there are no waves.
Quoted from: The Journal of Socho, Stanford University Press, 2002, p. 11.
Genji related prints (Genji-e - 源氏絵) (genre)
Minatoya Kohei (湊屋小兵衛) (publisher)