Earth: Lin Chong (Do, Rinchu), from the series "The Five Elements of The Water Margin (Suiko gogyo)"

This surimono by Totoya Hokkei comes from his series "The Five Elements of The Water Margin (Suiko gogyo)," produced around 1830 and pairing five heroes of the Chinese novel Shuihuzhuan (in Japanese, Suikoden) with the five elements of traditional Chinese cosmology. This sheet depicts Lin Chong (in Japanese, Rinchu) corresponding to the element Earth (Do). Lin Chong, the former imperial arms instructor whose framing by corrupt officials drives a major narrative arc in the novel, was one of the most popular Suikoden heroes among Edo readers. The Suikoden boom in early nineteenth-century Japan, sparked by translations and Hokusai's own influential illustrations, transformed these Chinese outlaw figures into icons of the floating world's heroic imagination. Hokkei renders Lin Chong with the dramatic figural concentration characteristic of the Hokusai school, his pose embodying the steadfast solidity associated with the element Earth. As a senior pupil of Katsushika Hokusai, Totoya Hokkei specialized in surimono throughout his career. These privately commissioned deluxe prints were used by kyoka poetry clubs to mark seasonal occasions, combining striking imagery with kyoka comic verses on heavy paper enriched with metallic pigments and embossing. The conceptual sophistication of pairing literary heroes with cosmological elements exemplifies the erudite intelligence that surimono cultivated in their educated recipients. The Art Institute of Chicago, which preserves this impression, holds substantial strength in early nineteenth-century Japanese surimono. The technical refinements visible in the work, the careful figure drawing, the embossing of armor and robes, and the metallic pigments, all reflect the heightened production standards characteristic of the surimono tradition.