The Dream of the Bell, Birthday Greeting for a Priest on his 96th Anniversery

The Dream of the Bell, Birthday Greeting for a Priest on His 96th Anniversary is an early nineteenth-century occasional surimono in which Shinsai supplied a print for a longevity celebration. Birthday surimono for centenarian or near-centenarian honorees were among the most prestigious occasional commissions in the format, and their kyoka verses typically combined praise with elaborate Buddhist or literary allusion. Shinsai's bell motif may refer to a famous No play or to a temple bell associated with the priest in question; without the full inscription the precise reference is hard to recover, but the print's quiet composition and deluxe production identify it as a high-status commission. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves the impression, an important example of how surimono functioned as commemorative objects within Edo's overlapping social, religious, and literary networks.