Spring Rain Collection (Harusame shū), vol. 1: “Offering Incense to the Deity of the Stone” (Yōgōishi), from the series History of Kamakura (Kamakura shi)
Kubo Shunman Japanese
Not on view
Surimono are privately published woodblock prints, usually commissioned by individual poets or poetry groups as a form of New Year’s greeting card. The poems, most commonly kyōka (witty thirty-one syllable verse), inscribed on the prints usually include felicitous imagery connected with spring, which in the lunar calendar begins on the first day of the first month. Themes of surimono are often erudite, frequently alluding to Japanese literary classics in both texts and images.
This series by the celebrated surimono designer Kubo Shunman refers to a historical chronicle of the ancient Japanese city of Kamakura, which was the seat of the military government from 1185 to 1333. Here, a boy offers incense to the human manifestation of local deity (kami), which usually appears as a stone.
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