It is good to harden the teeth Hagatameyoshi (title on object) A series for the Hanazono poetry association (series title) Hanazono bantsuzuki (series title on object), A woman uses a knife to make dried rice cake to cut, with behind her New Year decorations. At the beginning of the new year eating hard things like dried rice cake was something that would make the teeth harder and thus extend life. With two poems. The prints from this series are in line with the belief that the first activities of the new year were extra special. The red cartouche on the prints refers to almanacs in which it was indicated which activities could or could not be undertaken on certain days by people born in a certain year. Totoya Hokkei (mentioned on object), Japan, c. 1822, paper, colour woodcut, h 205 mm ⊙ w 182 mm.