Hair Ornaments

A small-format color woodblock print in the shikishiban surimono format (approximately 22.4 by 20 cm) held by the Art Institute of Chicago (Clarence Buckingham Collection) and dated 'c. 1804/30.' The shikishiban — a roughly square small-format sheet — was the standard carrier for surimono, the privately commissioned deluxe prints that kyōka poetry circles exchanged among themselves on seasonal occasions and which constitute one of the most refined corners of late-Edo printmaking. Surimono were printed in limited runs with metallic powders, embossed white pigment (gauffrage), and a more lavish color register than commercial nishiki-e, and they typically carried kyōka poems as well as the artist's design. 'Hair Ornaments' (kanzashi) — the lacquered combs, pins, and ornamental crests that fashionable Bunka-era women wore in their elaborate coiffures — was a favored surimono subject, allowing the designer to depict a small still-life of luxury objects against a plain ground without committing to a full bijin figure. The Buckingham Collection is one of the great American surimono holdings, and this Eishin sheet is one of its representative Kikukawa-school examples, demonstrating his integration into the Edo literary circles that supplied surimono with their poetic texts.