Willow Tea (Yanagicha), from the series "A Series of Willows (Yanagi bantsuzuki)"

Totoya Hokkei's 1823 surimono of Willow Tea (Yanagicha), from the series A Series of Willows (Yanagi bantsuzuki) and held by the Art Institute of Chicago, plays on the proliferation of willow-themed names in Edo's urban life. Yanagicha may refer to a particular tea or to an establishment incorporating willow in its name; in either case, the series gathers such instances into a single witty project. Edo kyoka-e clubs delighted in this kind of word-play, in which a recurrent term — yanagi — anchored a sequence of kyoka verses across multiple surimono sheets. Hokkei, one of the most accomplished pupils of the Hokusai school, supplied the visual designs that made each instance distinct, drawing on Katsushika Hokusai's example of careful observation of Edo life. Surimono format encouraged deluxe printing effects suitable for a private clientele: graded color, embossing for textiles, mica or metallic pigments for accessories. The Art Institute of Chicago's impression preserves Hokkei's contribution to one of the more playful surimono series of the 1820s, in which the Hokusai school's interest in everyday urban material is filtered through the linguistic exuberance of kyoka-e. As an entry in the Yanagi bantsuzuki cycle, the sheet is best understood not in isolation but as part of a longer poetic and pictorial conversation.