Shinto priest performing the seaweed-gathering ritual

This surimono by Totoya Hokkei, dated around 1830, depicts a Shinto priest performing the seaweed-gathering ritual (mekari shinji), an ancient ceremony marking the beginning of the lunar year. In the ritual, priests cut sacred seaweed at low tide as a propitiatory offering for a prosperous fishing season; the ceremony was particularly associated with shrines on the Kanmon Strait separating Honshu from Kyushu. Hokkei focuses tightly on the priest in his ceremonial robes, the ritual sickle in hand, capturing the solemn dignity of the moment with the disciplined economy that characterized the Hokusai school. The image relates closely to other prints in Hokkei's oeuvre that depict provincial customs and ceremonies, part of the broader meisho (famous places) tradition that fused topographic interest with attention to local practice. 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, especially the New Year, and they combined striking imagery with kyoka comic verses on heavy paper enriched with metallic pigments and embossing. The Shinto theme of this print aligned with the New Year subjects that surimono so often celebrated. The Art Institute of Chicago, which preserves this impression, holds significant strength in early nineteenth-century Japanese prints. The technical refinements visible in the work, the careful color registration of the priest's robes, the embossing that gives texture to fabric and rocks, the metallic accents that lend ceremonial luxury, all reflect the heightened production standards that distinguished surimono from ordinary commercial nishiki-e.