Three Women Reaching for Shuttlecock, with poem by Senrintei

Three Women Reaching for Shuttlecock, with poem by Senrintei, is a delicately animated surimono by Katsushika Hokusai that captures a moment of New Year's play in Edo Japan. Three young women, dressed in layered winter kimono of subtle colors, extend their paddles into the air as a feathered hanetsuki shuttlecock arcs above them. Their gazes, the curve of their sleeves, and the gentle overlap of their bodies build a tight, almost dancelike triangle, exactly the kind of figural choreography Hokusai refined across decades of designing ukiyo-e prints. Hanetsuki, a paddle game played at the start of the new year, was said to ward off bad luck, and the shuttlecock here becomes a small visual hinge linking the three figures and the inscribed poem by Senrintei. Such kyoka-illustrated surimono were privately printed for poetry circles and represent some of the most exquisitely produced ukiyo-e prints of the Edo period, often enhanced with karazuri blind embossing and metallic pigments. As a master of Edo ukiyo-e, Hokusai brings precise observation of textile pattern, hair ornament, and gesture into a composition that feels both ceremonial and intimate. The Harvard Art Museums hold this work within their distinguished collection of Hokusai surimono, where careful color and impression preserve the picture's quiet liveliness. For collectors, the print is an outstanding example of Hokusai's mastery of bijinga in small format, his close engagement with literary patrons, and the refined New Year iconography that gave Edo poets and painters a shared seasonal language.