Pine Trees, from the series "Tosa Diary for the Shofudai, Hisakataya, and Bunbunsha (Shofudai Hisakataya Bunbunsha Tosa nikki)"

Pine Trees, from the series Tosa Diary for the Shofudai, Hisakataya, and Bunbunsha (Shofudai Hisakataya Bunbunsha Tosa nikki) is a [shikishiban](/glossary/shikishiban) [surimono](/glossary/surimono) in the Art Institute of Chicago, part of an ambitious early-nineteenth-century series produced jointly for three of Edo's leading kyoka poetry circles. The series was based on the Tosa Diary (Tosa nikki), the tenth-century literary work attributed to Ki no Tsurayuki and narrating his return voyage from Tosa Province to the capital. Tosa nikki was one of the foundational texts of Japanese diary literature and a frequent subject for classical illustration; Shunman's surimono treatment, translating it into the small luxury format for an audience of kyoka poets, exemplifies the literary erudition that defined the late surimono tradition. Pine Trees, presumably illustrating a specific passage from the diary in which pines along the shore are encountered or referenced, would have been part of a multi-print sequence covering the diary's principal episodes. The collaboration of three poetry circles on a single series is notable: the Shofudai, Hisakataya, and Bunbunsha groups together represent a substantial portion of the Edo kyoka world, and the joint project signals the seriousness of the literary undertaking. Shunman's restrained late style - muted palette, careful composition, careful integration with poetry inscriptions - is well suited to the meditative tone of the Tosa nikki. The Art Institute of Chicago holds multiple sheets from this series, allowing the project to be reconstructed.