and commercial signs, etc., but chiefly by creating the designs for woodblock prints, i.e., the so-called ukiyo-e, pictures of the kaleidoscopic changing or "floating world." These ukiyo-e can be divided into three groups. First, there were those which were commissioned by publishers and sold commercially (they represented beautiful girls, actors, wrestlers, historical and legendary figures, and landscapes). Second, there were the erotic pictures (higiga, shunga, or makura-e). All Japanese ukiyo-e-shi painted, and designed erotic pictures with the exception of Sharaku. Such pictures were in great demand. They were placed under the pillow of newly wed couples. Third, there was the group called surimono (摺物),pictures of a much smaller size which were distributed to friends as gifts on festive occasions, particularly at the New Year's celebration.
Of the three groups in the family of ukiyo-e, the erotic pictures represent the elder brother who is evil and who is pursued by the police. The large-sized (ōban) pictures, which were sold commercially, represent the younger brother who is greatly admired by all. The surimono would be the beautiful and very elegant little sister.
Woodblock Prints Older than Surimono
The ukiyo-e art of woodblock printing is not old. Iwasa Matabei (1578-1650) was the first artist who hand-painted ukiyo-e but it is not probable that he made designs for wood blocks. The grand start of the ukiyo-e woodblock prints was launched by Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-94) who created single sheets and exquisite book illustrations, the versatility of which led to the great beginning.
Moronobu and other so-called primitive artists had been taught by painters of the Tosa and Kanō schools. Many generations of artists passing through these two schools had created magnificent pictures on silk or paper, sliding doors or screens for princes, Buddhist temples and monasteries. By their woodblock prints Moronobu and his successors brought art to the people.
The Kanō school appealed to the so-called primitives and also to much later artists far more than the solemn, dignified Tosa school. The Kanō school was known for its strong lines, most graceful in their movements——quite the same attributes which distinguish the best ukiyo-e.
The old primitive, one-coloured or hand-coloured woodblock prints today belong to the best and most valuable pictures of Japanese art. The "Golden Age" of ukiyo-e art, however, only began after the invention of the multicoloured printing method in 1765. Immediately afterwards the first simple calendar prints appeared which led to the ukiyo-e masterpieces par excellence, the surimono.
Distribution of Surimono and Influence of Art Clubs
A wood block exists showing three citizens on their way to friends to wish them a Happy New Year (printed in Rose Hempel's catalogue of the Theodor Scheiwe Collection, no. 304, p. 182). Behind them two servants are walking with a stack of surimono. The citizens had willingly paid a good price for their surimono to the printer-artist who was highly esteemed. The plan or idea often came from art-sensitive and talented citizens, but the picture, and often the idea too, came from the painter-artist. Poems on the surimono were also written by these citizens, since they were members of a literary club called ren in which they practiced the art of poetry, generally under the instruction of a renowned poet.
The ren or renjū were clubs or groups which accomplished a great deal a few decades prior to and after the year 1800. The ren were occupied with poetry in general and with the composing of haiku (17-syllable poems), kyōka (comic poems), or tanka (31-syllable poems); also with music, theatre, and the collecting and exchanging of pictures. Occasionally artistic competitions with friendly ren were held. Members were art-loving-citizens, merchants, a few hatamoto (samurai in the service of a shōgun), samurai, and professional artists. The names of a few ren have come down to us through history, especially the following: Kyosen Ren, Kiku Ren, Yomo Ren, Jōmō Shieyo Ren, Nagauta Kineya Renjū, and the Hanagasa Ren. Leaders of such clubs were Kyosen (Kikurensha Kyosen) and Sakei, both of whom were hatamoto.
Another club existed which collected calendar prints and was led by the famous scholar Hirata Atsutane, one of Japan's most learned historians and writers, He wrote commentaries to the Kojiki and Nihongi, the oldest annals of Japan. Hirata was a scholar, philosopher, dramatist, and the first to enlighten the people about the rights of the imperial family. He died in 1843.
Even today haiku and kyōka are taught in Japan in Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and elsewhere. But how far the Japanese of today are removed from the artistic New Year's wishes of the Kansei, Kyōwa, and Bunka periods (17891818) ! Today wealthy Japanese have a secretary prepare a list of persons who sent them New Year's wishes from the previous year as well as a list of newly made friends. Somebody is sent to the post office to buy a few hundred printed post cards. The post cards have no pictures as the old surimono had, but a lottery number instead. Thus the specially designed picture by an artist or a personally written poem have been replaced by a lottery number from which the recipient, if he is lucky, can win a few postage stamps. This is the trend of the time—not only in Japan but all over the world beautiful old customs are sacrificed for the sake of expediency.
In order to flourish, every kind of art needs a sounding board, in other words, appreciative admirers of the works of art. The art clubs were the sounding board of ukiyo-e, and especially of surimono art. The elite of the artistically interested middle class formed the ren and patronized the arts.
Two: DESCRIPTION
OF THE GENRE
The Subjects of Surimono Designs
By far the greatest part of all surimono were those given with good wishes for the coming year during the first days of the New Year. According to the formerly used lunar calendar, the year commenced during the second half of February of the Western calendar. This is the time when white-and rose-coloured blossoms signal the coming spring in Japan. Therefore, on hundreds of surimono, plum blossoms form a part of the decoration; they are the Japanese messengers of spring.
The sequence of the Chinese-Japanese calendar year cycle is: rat, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog, and wild boar. Eleven of these twelve animals were well known to the Japanese. Tigers did not live in Japan but in nearby Korea. The dragon was, from antiquity, a well-known animal in Japanese as well as in Chinese fables. But sheep were unknown in Japan until Europeans and Americans introduced them after Japan opened its ports. The Japanese must have taken over the sign of the sheep from the Chinese zodiac. Therefore although 1823, the great year of surimono competitions, was the year of the sheep, on: finds comparatively few surimono picturing sheep. Some show sheep, others goats. Rats were found in most Japanese homes in the nineteenth century. To the Japanese they are not as repugnant as to Americans and Europeans. The rat is the first of the twelve zodiac animals; it is natural that this animal is beautifully shown on hundreds of surimono.
Not only those animals of the zodiac cycle but also fish, lobsters, birds, butterflies, turtles, and so forth take the third place among the objects of surimono designs. The first place is occupied by portraits of beautiful women and the second by still-life pictures. After these come men (actors, heroes, courtiers of legend and history), popular folk scenes, and landscapes. Japan's Seven Gods of Fortune and the takara-bune (treasure-ship) appear often, due to the fact that the purpose of the surimono was to wish people good luck.
Still-life painting found its widest, almost its sole application on the surimono during that time. All objects that played a role in the comfortable lives of Japanese art lovers at the beginning of the nineteenth century can be found, among the subjects of still-life surimono accompanied by suitable poems; e.g., calligraphic samples, tea ceremony utensils, musical instruments, fans, masks, bows and arrows, coats of armour, dolls, books, playing cards, shells, and kitchen utensils. Approximately 20 percent of all surimono show still life. Scenes of everyday life,
