A Quiver of Arrows, a Potted Plum near a Low Screen

One of the most quietly accomplished of Shinsai's still-life surimono, A Quiver of Arrows, a Potted Plum near a Low Screen arranges three objects—a quiver, a potted plum, and a folding screen—into a composition that reads simultaneously as an interior view and as a flat decorative pattern. The arrows reference the protective hamaya distributed at the new year; the potted plum signals the season's first bloom; the low screen organizes the space and supplies the dark counterweight against which the lighter objects register. The composition typifies the Rinpa-derived design sensibility Shinsai inherited from Tawaraya Sori, executed with the precise object drawing of his Hokusai training. The early nineteenth-century impression at the Art Institute of Chicago shows the deluxe printing techniques—embossing, metallic accents, careful color modulation—that distinguish surimono of this rank.