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- Convenor:
-
Akiko Yano
(British Museum)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Ryo Akama
(Ritsumeikan University)
- Section:
- Visual Arts
- Sessions:
- Thursday 26 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
Surimono are a lucrative source on interaction and collaboration in the arts in early-modern Japan. The panel will examine surimono issued in Kyoto, Osaka and Edo, and assess varying aspects of cultural salons (clubs) and networks to understand the role of art in society in the 19th century.
Long Abstract:
When considering Edo period Japan, we face a paradox. Political and social historians tend to view the society as highly stratified into a rigid class system, with official restraints controlling individual movement. Cultural historians, on the other hand, see a remarkably different picture of a populace -- men and women of all strata who were tremendously active in the arts, forming circles locally and around the country, both by correspondence and by actual travel. Taking examples from surimono and other related material, this panel will consider how people participated in and related to each other, often transcending the boundaries of class and gender, through the arts.
Surimono, luxurious woodblock prints with poems and pictures, were privately produced for celebratory, commemorative or memorial occasions from about the 18th up to the end of 19th centuries. While they have survived in thousands, and are visually impressive, they have thus far remained underexplored and the data on them yet to be systematically recorded. In many cases, surimono are unique due to the small print runs.
Generally speaking, surimono record from a few to dozens of haikai/kyōka poems, with poets listed by their art name, usually accompanied by an elegant picture signed by the artist. They sometime contain a note about the occasion for which the surimono was made, the poets' places of origin and the poetry group's name. And they occasionally record the poets' age, gender and the date, and very occasionally the printer/carver's name. Identifying each contributor is far from straightforward. When a clue is found about the group of contributors, however, surimono offer us an abundance of information. Surimono are a vital primary source for understanding relationships through the arts - groups, clubs/salons and networks, and have a vast potential to help us include many more ordinary individuals as artistic practitioners in the cultural history of Japan.
Surimono give us a window through which to view the lively cultural environment of Edo period society. The significant number of surimono extant testifies to the dynamic and widespread activities of cultural groups, in cities and throughout Japan.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 26 August, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
I will argue that the use by performers, especially professionals, of the surimono format to promote themselves is significant because performers were officially considered beneath the status system. The surimono format enabled these individuals to present themselves as poets and artists - bunjin.
Paper long abstract:
There are many varieties of surimono but most that survive include poems (haiku, kyōka, kanshi) and an image. Poetry gatherings were an essential aspect of socializing in early modern Japan and allowed for the mixing of individuals from different statuses, regions, genders and ages. Poetry or other gatherings to participate in the arts created a cultural setting that was outside of the ordinary daily work life, and seems to have been considered egalitarian in the sense that within the group everyone held an identity as a 'poet' or 'artist' with a distinct penname or gō. Those who participated, therefore, were participating in a distinct cultural sphere as bunjin. It is relatively easy to create a short haiku of three lines, but it is difficult to create a haiku with an impact, especially within a renku sequence in which haiku were created around a theme and in relation to previous verses. It is remarkable that a really broad section of the Japanese population participated in poetry gatherings in the early modern era into the twentieth century.
In Kyoto-Osaka we have a sub-genre of surimono that relate to particular events within the world of performing arts, such as kabuki, jōruri, buyō, shamisen, rakugo, geiko, kendama, etc. These 'kamigata' surimono usually celebrate or commemorate an event, such a taking on a new name, or marking the memorial of a predecessor.
Focusing on several examples, I will argue that the use by performers, especially professionals, of the surimono format to promote themselves and/or their schools, is significant because actors and performers were officially considered beneath the status system, literally beyond the pale. The surimono format enabled these low status (but popular) individuals to present themselves as poets and artists - rather than as the pejorative phrase kawara-kojiki performers, who had to sell their art (and/or bodies) to make a living.
Paper short abstract:
'Shijō' surimono, with poems and adorning pictures by artists in the lineage of Maruyama and Shijō schools, are extant in large quantities, mostly underexplored. This paper will address the question of how we can include this large group of prints in discourses on late Edo-period art and culture.
Paper long abstract:
Surimono (privately issued prints) are well known as New Year calendars (egoyomi) perfected by Suzuki Harunobu and others in mid-18th century Edo, and as elaborate prints recording kyōka poems and pictures by celebrated artists such as Katsushika Hokusai and Kubo Shunman.
There is another substantial but lesser-known genre of surimono - so-called 'Shijō' surimono, which continued from the late 18th century until well into the Meiji era, accommodating pictures made largely by artists in the lineage of the Shijō and Maruyama schools active in Kyoto and Osaka. Some are famous - Yosa Buson, Goshun (Matsumura Gekkei) and Matsumura Keibun but many minor artists are also included. Haikai poems are more common than kyōka. Who are these poets, what are these groups, what are their relationships with the artists, how and on what occasions were these surimono produced, how did people meet and collaborate? These fundamental questions can only be answered by analysing first-hand the thousands of extant 'Shijō' surimono.
A new project is progressing in collaboration between the British Museum and Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center, Kyoto, on creating a database of the large collection of 'Shijo' surimono in the British Museum. The plan is first to digitise the surimono and haisho books, and then to transcribe the names - poets and artists usually listed by their art name (gō/haimyō) - and any other additional information such as dates, occasion, place of origin, age and gender where available. The poems themselves will be given secondary priority for the sake of efficiency to record and analyse relationships and networks. Geography covered will likely be wider than Kyoto, Osaka and neighbouring regions. Haikai was a tool that connected individuals across Japan in the late Edo period, and artists provided not just images but also poems in some cases.
This paper will discuss the above project and some of the initial findings through analysis, and whether it supports or negates the common assumption that individuals from various social background - courtiers, samurai, priests, merchants, farmers, performers, women etc. - participated in these poetry/art circles.
Paper short abstract:
Edo's kyōka networks were asserted and visualised through pennames and emblems that established group identities. While luxurious surimono series or kyōka anthologies might be read as a conspicuous form of competition, they can also embody collaboration between poetry groups.
Paper long abstract:
The convivial world of kyōka poetry was defined by competition as well as collaboration. A poet's affiliation to their poetry master and circle might be expressed through their penname, participation in competitions and placing in resultant kyōka anthologies, or in the sharing of the select space of a surimono print. Under this new identity, everyday status hierarchies could be disrupted (even if they were not always entirely put aside). Meanwhile, verses were judged, points awarded, rivalries set and peace brokered.
The sheer luxury of kyōka anthologies and extensive series of surimono prints from the Bunka and Bunsei eras (1804-30) can also be read as an assertion of a group's significance. These were conspicuously refined productions that demanded considerable resources to realise. Series of 24 or 36 surimono prints were not unknown, and poetry circles engaged prominent artists and printmakers who ornamented commissions with blind-embossing and metallic pigments to complement their cultivated verse.
Whether as title cartouches, seals or background motifs, group emblems are often deployed among surimono and kyōka anthologies. However, these too can reveal collaboration between masters and groups. In the dazzlingly extravagant surimono series, Framed paintings of women for the Katsushika Circle (葛飾連額面婦人合) designed by Yashima Gakutei around 1822, the emblem of the Katsushika Circle is not the only mark presented. Focusing on this series and contemporary kyōka anthologies, this paper explores the visualisation of contest and collaboration in the kyōka world.