Otchime, the Daughter of the God of the Sea, with a Dragon on a Rock

Otchime, the Daughter of the God of the Sea, with a Dragon on a Rock, dating to about 1800 and held by the Art Institute of Chicago, is a [surimono](/glossary/surimono) drawn from mythological iconography - the Princess Otohime, daughter of the Dragon King of the Sea (Ryujin), here rendered with her dragon attendant on a rocky outcrop. The image draws on the legend of Otohime as it appears in the Urashima Taro story and in related sea-king mythology, where the underwater palace of the Ryujin and his daughter served as a stage for tales of transformation and the passage of time. Shunman, working in the surimono mode, treats the mythological subject with restraint: the figure of Otohime is rendered with the slender elegance characteristic of his [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) heritage, while the dragon, traditionally an explosive form in [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e), is subdued into a decorative coil. The choice to give Otohime the bearing of an Edo bijin rather than an underwater princess is characteristic of the surimono tradition, which delighted in such elegant reframings. The kyoka inscriptions would have linked the imagery to seasonal themes - probably the New Year, given the dragon's auspicious associations with water, rain, and prosperity. The Art Institute of Chicago holds a substantial group of Shunman surimono from this period, and the Otohime print is among the most iconographically rich, drawing together mythology, bijin tradition, and poetic occasion in a single small sheet.