New Year—a time for new things. New clothes, new resolutions, and perhaps even a new chapter in life. All these come together in our ninth annual New Year Special Display of the Hatsune Trousseau, a National Treasure on loan from the Tokugawa Art Museum. This spectacular trousseau is an example of a set of furnishings created especially for a princess in the Edo period on the occasion of her marriage. It was produced in 1639 for Edo-period princess Chiyohime’s marriage, and followed her to her new home.

The Hatsune Trousseau is decorated with motifs from the “Hatsune” (The First Warbler) chapter of the Heian-period narrative The Tale of Genji. This chapter features the protagonist Prince Genji celebrating the New Year with his family, and contains a New Year’s poem that mentions “the first cry” of the warbler. Japanese culture places particular importance on “firsts” around the New Year—first visit to the shrine or temple, first dream of the year, first sunrise, and so on. It is for this very connection that our museum has chosen to exhibit the Hatsune Trousseau around New Year every year.

This year, we have three items from the Hatsune Trousseau, all decorated extravagantly in gold and silver using maki-e lacquer. Supplementing them are artworks also inspired by The Tale of Genji, as well as items from another Edo-period trousseau. This New Year’s season, come and see what a princess in that period would have brought with her as she entered a new stage in life.