Books

Books is a surimono by Ryuryukyo Shinsai in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a designer in the Hokusai school and a pupil of Katsushika Hokusai, Shinsai often treated bound books as worthy subjects for his still life surimono, recognizing in them the central place that reading and writing held in the world of his kyoka patrons. In this print, a small group of books is gathered, perhaps stacked or stood together, presented as both an object of refined taste and an emblem of literary cultivation. Bound books in Edo-period Japan were carefully designed objects in their own right: the covers might be wrapped in patterned silk or printed paper, the edges trimmed and sometimes lightly colored, the titles inscribed on tipped-on labels. Shinsai gives the books a quiet dignity, with attention to the patterning of covers, the layering of the volumes, and the way light catches on titles and edges. The sheet employs the lavish production techniques unique to surimono: embossed blindprinting (karazuri) suggesting the weave or relief of cover designs, soft color gradations across painted patterns, and discreet metallic pigments hinting at gilded characters or inlaid decoration. Privately commissioned by a kyoka poetry circle, the print would have been distributed among members whose own livelihoods often involved literary composition. The work captures Shinsai's gift for transforming the tools of literacy into refined visual poetry. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/54838.