Toothpicks and Their Cover

Toothpicks and Their Cover is a surimono by Ryuryukyo Shinsai in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A pupil of Katsushika Hokusai and a designer within the Hokusai school, Shinsai treated even the most humble of domestic items with the same attentive care he brought to more obviously prestigious subjects. Here a small holder of toothpicks is shown together with its cover, the kind of object that appeared on every well-appointed tray in late Edo-period Japan and was often itself a piece of carved or lacquered craftsmanship. By isolating two such modest items, Shinsai engages directly with the surimono tradition's love of the unassuming object closely observed. The composition is restrained and precise, with the narrow vertical of the toothpicks set against the rounded volume of the cover. The sheet exploits the technical refinements typical of surimono printing: embossed blindprinting (karazuri) suggesting the wood grain of the picks and the smooth surface of the lacquer cover, soft color gradations across painted or inlaid decoration, and selective metallic pigments highlighting fittings or design motifs. Surimono were commissioned privately by kyoka poetry circles, and the verses inscribed on the sheet would have responded to the wit of finding poetic significance in such ordinary tools. The print is a fine example of how Ryuryukyo Shinsai used the surimono format to elevate the small implements of daily life into refined, meditative art. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/54055.