Tachibana no Hayanari preparing to make the first writing of the New Year

Tachibana no Hayanari preparing to make the first writing of the New Year, designed by Totoya Hokkei in 1823, transposes a New Year ritual familiar to Hokkei's Edo public into the figure of Tachibana no Hayanari, a celebrated calligrapher of the early Heian period. The act of kakizome, the first writing of the year, was a customary observance in which scholars, poets, and ordinary households practiced their best handwriting on the second day of the first month. By assigning this moment to a historical master of calligraphy, the print acquired a layered resonance suited to a surimono commission, where audiences expected images to reward literary recollection as much as visual appreciation. Hokkei's figure of Hayanari is poised and self-contained, drawn with the controlled outline and measured composition typical of the Hokusai school manner he developed under Katsushika Hokusai. As an experienced surimono designer, Totoya Hokkei integrated the inscribed kyoka verses into the design so that they share the page on equal terms with the image, the whole forming a refined gift suitable for the New Year context that surimono so often served. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this impression under accession entry 23566, where it provides a useful instance of how Hokusai school surimono drew on classical Japanese precedent rather than only Chinese subjects or contemporary genre themes. The print is also a notable example of how a single seasonal observance, kakizome, could be enriched by historical reference and adapted to the bibliophilic interests of Hokkei's patrons.