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HOKUSAI, Katsushika (1760 - 1849)

Contest of Shells According to the Genroku Era Immortals of Poetry" - Horagai: The conch shell -

ref. no.: # 51 860

Signed:                       Getchi rôjin Iitsu hitsu (rubbed off) Poems by:                   Sakuraan Yoshitane & Yomo Utagaki Magao Date:                            1821 Size:                            21.3 x 18.4 cms  (shikishiban surimono) Condition: Very good impression, with good colors, surface a bit rubbed, corners expertly restored, good general conditon. With the use of metallic pigments. - Extremely rare!

This surimono is from Hokusai's largest set of surimono, commissioned by the Yomogawa-ren (poetry cirlce), and consists of 36 prints. It is based on a list of thrity-six shells, first published, it seems, in 1689, at the beginning of the Genroku period. The print shows "a man standing on a sloping hill at the left, aiming a blow pipe. Some thetched huts and a straw-wrapped pine tree in the right foreground. A village hidden by a group of trees in the distance, and a flock of birds settling by a pond. The torii by the water's edge possibly leads to a Benten shrine. In the first poem the man is identified as a village chief who is growing old. It is difficult to discern whether he is aiming his blow pipe at the flock of birds by the pond, or at some hidden warbler in the tree, since both poems mention this spring bird which is too small to be identified with the ones depicted. The picture was inspired by the expression hora o fuku, blowing a conch, mentioned in the last poem, which means boasting, or feeling self-satisfied, and the old village head-man 'blowing his own trumpet' might be the subject of some folk story, which would make the picture clear. Himachi and tsukimachi, mentioned in the first poem, are religious observances of moonrise and sunrise on the 15th day of the first month and other auspicious days. Conch blowing and storytelling would without doubt help the worshippers keep awake." (Quotes taken from the article mentioned below.) The signature, Getchi rôjin Iitsu hitsu, probably is the most unusual and rarest of Hokusai's vast number of signatures. This most important set of surimono has been thoroughly discussed by Matthi Forrer and Roger Keyes in: "Very like a whale? - Hokusai's illustrations for the Genroku poem shells", in: "A sheaf of Japanese papers", Society for Japanese Arts and Crafts, The Hague, 1979.

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