Discussion

The first "fireworks" were probably invented/discovered in China during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). It consisted of a bamboo culm being put into a fire. When the hollow interior was sufficiently heated, it would explode. It would be weak on pyrotechnics but strong on noise; useful for warding off evil spirits.

The invention of gunpowder somewhere between 600 - 900 A.D. livened things up a bit. The first man-made fireworks were made by filling bamboo culm, and later on cardboard tubes, with gunpowder. By late in the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279), firecrackers similar to the ones shown below were readily available in market places.

A grand display of fireworks is known to have occurred in 1110 to entertain Emperor Huizong (reigned 1100–1125) and his court. Rocket propulsion, common in warfare by then, was applied to fireworks by at least 1264. The illustration below shows the basic anatomy of modern aerial fireworks.

They are shot into the air from a mortar or mounted atop a rocket. The rocket "engine" is often built into the body of the fireworks. The type of chemicals used in the metal salts determines what colors appear when the fireworks goes off.

Arabs learned of fireworks from China in 1240, and they were being produced by Europeans by the 14th century, especially in Italy. Fireworks were used to celebrate America's first Independence Day on July 4, 1776, a tradition that continues today.

Fireworks are thought to have been introduced into Japan around 1600, but today's popularity stems from a fireworks memorial event over the Sumida River at Edo in 1733 to commemorate victims of starvation due to crop failures, plague, and a cholera epidemic. The event became known as “Ryōgoku Kawabiraki Hanabi” (Ryōgoku River-Opening Fireworks). Ryōgoku comes from the name of a bridge crossing the Sumida River, and hanabi literally means fire flower. Modern fireworks shows in Japan are happy events.

Japanese ukiyo-e artists have been mindful of the popularity of fireworks. This first painting titled Fireworks at Ryōgoku Bridge is by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 - 1858), famous for his The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō series among other things. It was painted in the 1847 to 1852 time period.

Hiroshige repeated the theme with another print with the same title, Fireworks at Ryōgoku Bridge, in 1858.

Ikkei Shosai who was active around 1870 was a student Hiroshige III, an artist who studied under Utagawa Hiroshige. His principle focus was on views of Tokyo during its transformation into a Western city with stone buildings, steel bridges, railways and steam locomotives. Among his works was a series of comic scenes about life in Edo. The print below showing a young beauty being startled by a fireworks spark is one of them.

The final picture I have was painted by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847 - 1915). It's title, Fireworks at Ryōgoku, sounds familiar. It was painted in 1880. Kiyochika's works are considered to be the last significant prints of the ukiyo-e period. He also was interested in the modernization of Japan in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. It was his painting that gave me the idea for my demonstration painting.