An Inauspicious Day

An Inauspicious Day — Suzuki Harunobu. c.1769.

Medium: Color woodblock print; hashira-e. Dimensions: 68.9 × 12.1 cm (27 1/8 × 4 3/4 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

This print shows the Wind God as a wild-haired, half-naked demon, his bag billowing above his head as he looks down from his platform in the clouds. He has caught sight of a young beauty out for a stroll and unleashed a sudden gust, scattering her roll of paper and sending the letter she’d been carrying up to his perch, where he now has it in hand. The wooden placard to the right of the Wind God announces the inauspicious days of the year, when an unwary or unlucky person who undertakes a task may encounter challenges like his mischief.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.