KAKURENBO

Kakurenbo — the Japanese children's game of hide-and-seek — is a subject Shuntei likely treats as a multi-figure composition set outdoors or in a garden. One child covers her eyes while others scatter and conceal themselves among rocks, plantings, or architectural elements. Prints depicting children at play, known broadly as kodomo-e, were a distinct subgenre of genre printing in the Meiji and Taisho eras. The seasonal setting would be indicated by specific plants or tree foliage. Shuntei's treatment of this subject demonstrates the capacity of nishiki-e printing to render motion and spatial recession through overlapping figures and varied scale, capturing the informal energy of children's play within a composed pictorial frame.