Telescope with Its Bag

Telescope with Its Bag is a [surimono](/glossary/surimono) by Ryuryukyo Shinsai in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A pupil of Katsushika Hokusai and a participant in the Hokusai school, Shinsai treated newly fashionable objects with the same care he gave to traditional emblems of Japanese culture. The telescope was an instrument of European origin that had become a fashionable item among curious Edo-period townsmen, scholars of Western learning (rangaku), and travelers seeking views of distant landscapes. In this print Shinsai depicts a collapsible telescope alongside its protective bag, the two presented as a complete set ready for use. The clean depiction of the tube, ferrules, and embroidered or patterned fabric of the bag exemplifies the Hokusai-school taste for precise observation of objects. As a surimono, the sheet would have employed the lavish printing techniques typical of the form, including embossed blindprinting ([karazuri](/glossary/karazuri)) for the textured cloth and metallic fittings, soft color gradations across the brass-toned barrel, and discreet metallic pigments. Telescopes had cultural connotations of curiosity, far seeing, and contemporary fashion, and including one on a privately commissioned print signaled a kyoka poetry circle's modern sensibility. Surimono served as both poetic accompaniment and connoisseur's pleasure, and Shinsai's print here captures the moment when an imported instrument had been absorbed into the still life vocabulary of Japanese print art. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/54939.