A Giant Radish, Chrysanthemums, and Ferns

Dated to about 1820, A Giant Radish, Chrysanthemums, and Ferns is one of the most striking of Shinsai's late still-life surimono. The composition centers on an oversized daikon radish accompanied by chrysanthemums and fronds of fern, a combination whose seasonal and symbolic associations would have been transparent to the print's kyoka audience: chrysanthemum for autumn and longevity, daikon for harvest and rural prosperity, fern for resilience. Shinsai's design pushes the deluxe still-life surimono mode to its most pictorially confident: the radish is rendered with a tactile weight unusual in woodblock printing, and the composition's diagonal organization, reading from upper-left to lower-right, is the same Rinpa-derived scheme Shinsai had used for two decades, now executed at the height of his mature command. The Art Institute of Chicago holds the impression among its outstanding surimono holdings.