Fine Japanese Prints
Fine Japanese Prints
A Collection of Surimono
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) | The Purple Shell (Murasaki-gai) | Edo period, 19th century
Lot Closed
December 14, 01:33 PM GMT
Estimate
7,000 - 9,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A Collection of Surimono
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)
The Purple Shell (Murasaki-gai)
Edo period, 19th century
woodblock print, surimono, embellished with metallic pigments and embossing, depicting fishermen hauling fishnets at dawn in Katase, from the series Shell-Matching Game with Genroku Poets (Genroku kasen kai awase), signed Getchi rojin Iitsu hitsu, privately issued for the Yomogawa Poetry Group in 1821, poems by Tsukinoya Shitakage and Yomo no Utagaki
Surimono, shikishiban: 19.7 x 17.4 cm., 7¾ x 6⅞ in.
The first poem by Tsukinoya Shitakage is in the form known as a sedoka, structured by a syllabic rhyme of 5-7-7, 5-7-7. The second poem by Yomo no Utagaki [Magao, 1753-1829] makes a pun by combining the name of the location with the name of the shell: 'Katasemura saki'. Both have been translated by James T. Kenney and Fumiko Togasaki in Theodore Bowie, Art of the Surimono, (Bloomington, 1979), p. 178, no. 110:
The morning mist is settled,
Wishes are fulfilled;
Now the tide is at the full,
Ready for fishing:
A fruitful labour
In purplish Spring
Asagasumi
Tatsuru negai mo
Shio mo kanainu
Kaiaru haru ni
Abiki suru tote
In Enoshima
The mist drapes itself over
Katase village;
The ebb tide
Has made it a peninsula
Enoshima no
Kasumi watareru
Katase-mura
Saki no higata ni
Ima ya naruran
For the same print in the collection of The British Museum, museum number 1907,0531,0.155, go to:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1907-0531-0-155
Also, for a further example in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, object number 1933.4.1771, go to: