Memorial Surimono

Issued in the second month of 1883, this color woodblock [surimono](/glossary/surimono) is a memorial sheet, the format of choice for kyoka poets who wished to commemorate a deceased teacher, fellow poet, or patron. Memorial surimono typically combine elegiac kyoka verse with imagery that alludes to the departed - emblems of the seasons, personal effects, religious objects, or symbols of longevity now turned poignant. Zeshin produced a number of such commissions in his later years, drawing on the visual vocabulary he had developed across decades of work in lacquer, painting, and print. The sheet is in the Art Institute of Chicago, dated precisely to the second month of 1883, which places it in a productive late period when Zeshin was simultaneously working on lacquer panels for international expositions and accepting private commissions from the surviving Edo poetry clubs. The combination of restrained brushwork, kyoka poetry, and seasonal symbolism is typical of his memorial sheets and of the broader surimono tradition in its closing years.