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Introduction

Surimono

Selections from the Japanese Print Collection
June 9 - September 8, 1998

Surimono (literally "printed objects") are distinguished from polychrome woodblock prints by the presence of a variety of texts integrated into their overall compositions. Privately commissioned and published as announcements, commemorations, or most often as new year's greetings with poems, they exhibit elaborate printing and embossing techniques and the application of metallic dusts and colors on thick paper. The specialized division of labor common in the Japanese woodblock printing process was sometimes overlooked, as painters and poets designed prints and printers both engraved and printed their designs.

The link between text and image in surimono is an important one. By the early nineteenth century, when most of these objects were made, the image and the accompanying poems were conceived together in what is now regarded as the characteristic format. Whether the poetry referred directly to the subject of the print or played upon the printed image by using word puns and an assortment of allusions, the work of art was always infused with meaning for its educated recipient, as well as a sensuous beauty meant to be savored and enjoyed.

Most of the selections in this exhibition are from a group of eighty-eight prints presented to the Museum as a gift by George Pierce Metcalf in 1956. The group came from a single Osaka album, one of at least two that were presented as gifts to Raphael Pumpelly, a well-known geologist, during his travels in Japan in 1863, soon after that country opened its doors to the West. Not only are these some of the earliest Japanese prints to leave Japan; the album's unique association with Osaka is confirmed through the inclusion of Osaka poets and printmakers whose works are not as well known as the printmakers of Edo (modem Tokyo). The numerous kyoka (comic) poems by Tsurunoya Osamaru (d. 1839) and members of his circle, as well as the appearance of a "crane" (tsuru) seal on many of the prints, make it clear that his patronage and that of his fellow poets provided the impetus for the creation of many of these works.

Selected Objects

Ryuryukyo Shinsai

Fan, Boxes, and Cloth, 1820s

Yashima Gakutei

Glass Wine Jar, probably made for the Dolls Festival, spring 1822

Bokutei (?) Hyakuba

Stirrup, 1822

Yashima Gakutei

Doll on a Stand, probably made for the Doll Festival in 1822

Yanagawa Shigenobu

The Poet Asaka no Katsumi with Companions, probably spring 1823

Ryuryukyo Shinsai

Turtle Netsuke and Cloth, 1822

Ryuryukyo Shinsai

Lobster and Cup, 1820s

Tokatei Toyu

A Sumo Wrestler's Apron, early to mid-1820s

Yashima Gakutei

Minamoto no Yoritomo with a Crane, 1820s

Mori Shunkei

Camellia and narcissus (Tsubaki to suisen), ca. 1810'S

Katsushika Hokusai

Hatakeyama Shigetada Carrying a Horse, 1822

Baien

Hobby Horse and Vegetables, ca. 1825-1827

Nagayama Kōin

Cakes Wrapped in Oak Leaves, possibly fifth lunar month of 1822

Kōitsu

Woman with a Moon Lute, 1827 - 1828

Baien

Pipe and Tobacco Pouch, possibly first lunar month of 1827

Mochizuki no Kagenari

Statue of Buddha and a Lily, mid-1820s

Totoya Hokkei

Cranes and young pines (Komatsu ni tsuru), ca. 1820

Nagayama Kōin

Tortoise Carrying the Isle of the Immortals on His Back, mid-1820s

Ryuryukyo Shinsai

Cart with Symbols of Longevity, 1822

Aoigaoka Keigetsu

Hobby Horse and Candies, 1822

Utagawa Toyokuni

Ichikawa Danjuro VII and Iwai Hanshiro V in Hagoromo, 1820s

Yashima Gakutei

Fan Ceng and Tomoe Gozen, 1820s

More objects +

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