Plum Blossom & Green Willow: Japanese Surimono Poetry Prints from the Ashmolean Museum Clare Pollard and Kiyoko Hanaoka
Plum Blossom & Green Willow: Japanese Surimono Poetry Prints from the Ashmolean Museum Clare Pollard and Kiyoko Hanaoka
9781910807262
Paperback
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Size: 11 in x 8.75 in
Pages: 128
Illustrations: 80 color, 5 b&w
• An introduction to the art of surimono, privately printed small prints of rare value
The works included here have never-published before in any form
English translations of the poetry
Surimono is the name of a popular form of small print of great visual appeal especially popular in Japan from the 1970s to the 1830s. These small woodblock prints were the "jewels of Japanese printmaking." Money was no object as they might be with commercial prints. Printed in small numbers, for the literati, often by poetry societies, they were often experimental in subject matter and used extravagant printing techniques and the finest materials. They might be commissioned for special occasions such as the New Year. A Kabuki actor, another example, would have a print made to mark a change of name or an event in his family. A picture would be combined with related poems, and the arrangement of the illustration and the calligraphic text would be beautifully designed.
This publication reveals their beauty and will be treasured by the print connoisseur and layman alike.
Displaying the Ashmolean Museum's collection, mostly from the Jennings-Spalding Gift, these are rare and previously unpublished prints hqve been catalogued for the first time.
Clare Pollard is the Curator of Japanese Art at the Ashmolean Museum. Kiyoko Hanaoka is a long-serving Volunteer in the Eastern Art Department of the Ashmolean Museum.