Urashima Taro Going Home on the Back of a Tai Fish, the King of the Sea Seeing Him Off

This surimono by Totoya Hokkei illustrates a moment from the well-loved legend of Urashima Taro, the fisherman who saved a turtle and was rewarded with a visit to the underwater Dragon Palace. Here Hokkei depicts Urashima riding home on the back of a tai, the auspicious red sea bream, while the King of the Sea remains behind to see him off. The choice of the tai for the homeward journey is a witty Hokkei substitution: in many versions of the tale Urashima returns on a turtle, but the tai is itself a New Year emblem of celebration and prosperity, traditionally associated with the god Ebisu, and the substitution makes the scene more obviously festive. Hokkei composes the scene with a strong horizontal sweep across the sheet, Urashima seated low on the broad red back of the fish while the King of the Sea, dressed in court robes, raises a hand in farewell. The waves are described with the stylized scallops common in early nineteenth-century surimono, and metallic pigment along the spray catches the light. The sheet was commissioned by a kyoka poetry circle and accompanied by verses that played on themes of homecoming, hospitality, or the passage of time, central preoccupations of the Urashima story. Hokkei was one of the most accomplished pupils of Katsushika Hokusai and a leading specialist in narrative surimono within the Hokusai school. The print is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and shows the artist's confident handling of legendary subjects within the compact, decoratively printed format of the privately commissioned Edo print.