Passage 191 (Hyaku kyujuichi dan), from the series "Essays in Idleness for the Asakusa Group (Asakusagawa Tsurezuregusa)"

Passage 191 (Hyaku kyujuichi dan), in the Art Institute of Chicago, is a third sheet from Shunman's Asakusagawa Tsurezuregusa series, illustrating one more section of Yoshida Kenko's classical miscellany for the Asakusa poetry circle. Together with Passages 158 and 237 in the same collection, this print allows scholars to trace the visual logic of the series across its surviving sheets: the consistent shikishiban format, the muted color sense, the embossing, and the consistent integration of kyoka inscriptions in spaces deliberately left for them. Tsurezuregusa Passage 191 contains specific observations of Kenko's that the print would have invoked through a chosen image; without identifying the particular content depicted, one can still note Shunman's strategy of distilling the prose into a single visual moment - an object, a figure, a season - that could carry the weight of the original passage while leaving room for poetic supplement. The Asakusagawa project, which appears to have run for an extended period in the early nineteenth century, is one of the most sustained literary-illustration enterprises in surimono history, and Shunman's commitment to it across years of work testifies to his deep involvement in the Asakusa kyoka world. The Art Institute of Chicago's grouping of these prints is among the most significant holdings of the project anywhere.