Warbler in a cage, from the series "A Series for the Hanazono Group (Hanazono bantsuzuki)"

From Totoya Hokkei's 1823 surimono series A Series for the Hanazono Group (Hanazono bantsuzuki), recorded in the Art Institute of Chicago, this sheet depicts a warbler in a cage, a subject that combines the keen Japanese interest in songbirds with the intimate, decorative character of the surimono format. The Hanazono (flower garden) was the name of a kyoka club, and series like Hanazono bantsuzuki were commissioned by its members to celebrate their shared literary pursuits. Each impression would have carried kyoka verses by club members composed to accompany the image. The warbler (uguisu), with its song heralding spring, was an especially resonant subject in this context, since many surimono were issued as New Year or early-spring greetings. Hokkei, a leading pupil of the Hokusai school, was adept at such close studies of birds and small creatures, drawing on Katsushika Hokusai's example to produce confident yet refined designs. Surimono printing of the period employed mica, gold and silver pigments, embossing and finely graded color, all of which could be deployed to render the bird's plumage, the cage's lacquer or bamboo, and the suggestion of an interior setting. As part of a sustained series for a single kyoka club, the sheet exemplifies the social and material refinements of Edo kyoka-e at its height.