A turner and his assistant, from the series "Thirty-six Poets as Craftsmen (Shokunin sanjurokuban)"
- Date:
- 1802
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; surimono
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
A turner and his assistant, from the series "Thirty-six Poets as Craftsmen (Shokunin sanjurokuban)," is a Katsushika Hokusai [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) print of about 1802 in the Art Institute of Chicago. The series belongs to a beloved Edo literary genre that paired the canonical Thirty-six Immortal Poets (sanjurokkasen) with everyday craftsmen, using the resulting humorous mismatch as the structure for kyoka verse. Each sheet illustrated a different trade, and the inscribed poem played on the famous lines of the poet whose name had been substituted into the artisan's place. Here Hokusai shows a turner at work on a hand-powered lathe, with an assistant steadying the workpiece, the wooden chips and tools precisely observed. The print belongs to the [surimono](/glossary/surimono) tradition, which prized delicate color, fine cutting, and restrained composition for a connoisseur audience of poetry-club subscribers. Katsushika Hokusai's interest in trades carried across his career, from the Kyoka Ehon Shokunin Kagami of about 1803 to the elaborate manga volumes of the 1810s and beyond, and this Turner is among the most concise demonstrations of his ability to translate workshop observation into elegant Edo ukiyo-e composition. As a ukiyo-e print, the sheet also documents how thoroughly the kyoka movement saturated Edo print culture in the early 1800s. The Art Institute of Chicago impression preserves the careful color and fine line work that mark first-rate surimono of the period.
1821
Color woodblock print with metallic pigments; surimono shikishiban
1822
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
1822
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
c. 1832
Color woodblock print; oban
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
A turner and his assistant, from the series "Thirty-six Poets as Craftsmen (Shokunin sanjurokuban)" was created by Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎) in 1802.
A turner and his assistant, from the series "Thirty-six Poets as Craftsmen (Shokunin sanjurokuban)" depicts landscapes.