A Pair of Boxes, a Letter Box, and Plum Blossoms

A characteristic still-life surimono by Ryuryukyo Shinsai, this undated color woodblock print arranges two stacked boxes, a slim letter box (fubako), and a branch of plum blossoms against a quiet ground. The composition reads from upper-left to lower-right along a gentle diagonal, the most basic and most flexible of Rinpa-derived still-life schemes that Shinsai absorbed from his teacher Tawaraya Sori. The boxes are rendered with the lacquer-like black and burnished metallic accents that define deluxe Hokusai-school surimono of the Bunka era, while the plum branch, executed in fine line and pale pink wash, supplies the seasonal reference around which the accompanying kyoka poems would have been built. As a New Year's plum motif, the print would have circulated privately among members of an Edo poetry club rather than through commercial channels. The Art Institute of Chicago, where this impression is held, preserves one of the most important surimono collections in North America, and the print is a fine example of Shinsai's restrained, object-focused mode at the height of his career.