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Surimonos are luxurious stamps, made in a very careful fashion: high quality paper, exceptional pigments, often enhanced with gold and silver, parts en relief, embossing, and great delicacy in the engraving. All defects during printing were destroyed. The sales price was very high. Surimonos, specially ordered from editors or artists were ‘private printings’ of small numbers; they were destined either to be given as gifts on certain occasions (parties, the new year, congratulations for a marriage, or to honour a famous actor), or to poets’ or stamp lovers’ clubs. Surimonos are generally made in a small format, shikishiban (about 20 × 18 cm), sometimes smaller (15 × 10 cm), but large pieces do exist. In general, one or more poems are written on surimonos; they illustrate the scene and give it a deep meaning, and their script is part of the beauty and balance of the drawing. Subjects are more varied than on ‘traditional’ stamps. These prints are not made for commercial purposes. They are sometimes New Year’s cards that one gives to friends or concert programs; they sometimes commemorate a party honouring an academic or an artist, living or dead. They are soft prints, where the colour and the drawing seem tenderly soaked up by the silk in Japanese paper. They are images with a beautifully softened tone, artfully blended and faded, with colouring similar to the lightly tinted clouds made by a brush full of paint in a glass of water. These images are characterised by the silkiness of the paper, the quality of the colours, the careful printing, the gold and silver enhancements, and by embossing, which is obtained by the weight of the worker’s bare elbow on the paper. These engravings, so typically Japanese, are a large part of Hokusai’s œuvre.

Mount Fuji behind Cherry Trees in Bloom, c. 1800–1805.

Surimono, nishiki-e, 20.1 × 55.4 cm.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The first known surimono by Hokusai dates from 1793. It is signed: “Mugura Shunro “. It represents a young drinking water merchant, sitting on the staff used to carry his two small barrels; at his side are sugar bowls, and porcelain and metal bowls. This surimono carries, on the back, the program for a concert organised in the month of July, to introduce a musician under his new artistic name and is accompanied by the names of those who sent out the following invitation: “Despite the great heat, I hope that you are in good health. I wish to inform you that my name has changed, and that, to celebrate this change, on the fourth day of next month, I am organising a concert at Kiôya de Ryogoku’s house, with the participation of all my students, a concert from ten o’clock in the morning until four o’clock in the afternoon and, whether the weather is nice or it rains, I count on the honour of your attendance. Tokiwazu Mozitayu.”

In 1794, Hokusai painted several small sheets for New Year’s Day, the size of playing cards.

In 1795, the artist completed surimonos for women, mixed with surimonos of personal objects, such as the one that shows an embroidered towel, a sack of bran, and an umbrella, hung on a gate. These objects indicate that the lady of the house has just taken a bath. These surimonos were signed Hishikawa Sôri, or simply Sôri.

In 1796, Hokusai painted a fairly large number of surimonos. The most remarkable ones are those representing, in two long bands, a gathering of men and women on ‘table-beds’, with feet in the river, upon which the group enjoys the cool evening air.

One finds, in 1797, surimonos reproducing objects from daily life, such as packages for packets of perfumes with a plum branch in bloom. On one of them, a woman mocks the kami (spirit) Fokoroku, on whose head she has placed a paper hen. Another represents a boat, with a showman with a monkey in it. The artist also completed a series of surimonos shaded with irony towards the gods, on yellow paper, with the subjects coloured in violet and green. This year was the year of the snake in the Japanese almanac, which explains a pretty little surimono that represents a woman who, upon seeing a snake, has fallen on her back with a leg in the air. Finally, one finds groups of large images, showing women walking in the countryside.

Mount Fuji and an Old Pine, c. 1802.

Black ink, colour and gofun on silk, 29.4 × 53.7 cm.

Japanese Ukiyo-e Museum, Matsumoto.

The River of Jewels near Ide, c. 1802.

Ink, colour and gofun on paper, 100.9 × 41.4 cm.

Chibashi bijutsukan, Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba.

The River of Jewels near Mishima, c. 1802.

Ink, colour and gofun on paper, 88.2 × 41 cm.

Hokusai Museum, Obuse.

In 1798, Hokusai produced numerous surimonos representing a horse, which is, along with the earth, one of the elements of the Japanese calendar. This representation of a horse sometimes takes the form of a horse’s head, made by a child’s fingers across a frame. Among the surimonos of note painted during that year are: a toy seller walking on a mat while children watch; two children, one of whom is making a puppet dance above a screen, while the other, squatting on the ground, watches with his hands under his chin; a tea merchant in front of the Uyeno temple in Edo with a group of women and children; men and women disguised as the gods and goddesses of the Japanese Olympus; a horse race; a large landscape of the banks of the Sumida with very small people represented. Other surimonos show women: the Tchanoyu tea ceremony for women; two women reading while lying on the ground, one with her head resting on the paper, the other reading with a pretty tilt of her head to the side; two women rolled up together on the floor, tearing at a letter. Among the great surimonos of women from this year and the years to come, Hokusai escaped from the ‘precious’ or ‘doll-like’ grace, typical of his early years. His creatures become more ample, more true, and approach true feminine grace, as a result of studying from nature.

The year 1799 was, in the Japanese calendar, the year of the sheep on the zodiac and many surimonos have a sheep in the corner of the composition. One of these surimonos represents a Japanese man holding a sheep in his arms. It is important to note this story about the sheep: in the past, the Japanese, surprised to see the Dutch making the voyage to Japan without women, believed that the sheep on board took their place. They were so convinced of this that, later, the Japanese women who entered relationships with the foreigners were called ‘sheep’ by their compatriots. Some of the surimonos from this year were curiously composed, as follows: a woman selling toothpaste powder fashioning a piece of black camphorwood to make a toothbrush; a manufacturer of wigs and mats; a silk peddler and the manufacture of silk in the countryside. There was also a series of busts of women. One also notes a series representing young women, with a ‘sinuous’ grace: a woman sweeping snow or a woman standing, folding a piece of fabric as tall as she is with an elegant undulation to her body. A surimono also represents a toad covered in warts. Finally, is a large surimono that is quite surprising: a half opened blind looking out on a flowering branch, part of which can be seen, in shadow, through the weave of the blind.

In 1800, the artist completed a series of fifteen surimonos, ‘The Childhoods of Historical Figures’ and a series of seven surimonos, ‘The Wise Men of the Bamboo’, in which old wise men are represented as modern women.

Woman beneath a Willow in Winter, c. 1802.

Black and coloured ink on paper, 136.5 × 46.2 cm.

Henry and Lee Harrison Collection.

One series of twenty-four surimonos is entitled ‘Filial Piety’. In them, one sees a charming drawing of a woman doing laundry, her upper body bare. Her torso is studded with petals from a flowering plum tree above her being shaken by the wind.

Another series represents the twelve months of the year, as seen by women, where in one graceful drawing, a young Japanese girl scours a floor while her mistress watches lazily. Another shows three pieces of music represented by three female musicians.

One series is entitled ‘Eight Bedrooms’. It contains eight representations of small women, one of which, with a bare torso, is washing herself in front of a monkey onto which she has thrown her robe. The monkey was, that particular year, the animal of the year and reappears in several of the plates. Another series is a caricature, in the Otsuye genre, of industrial imagery of the Japanese Epinal of Otsu, near Kyoto.

In 1801 appeared a series of twelve little upright works entitled ‘A Pair of Folding Screens’. It shows a series of small modern women with old men from another century at their feet. Some plates represent women making marionettes play in a little theatre, or actors and theatrical sets, notably with Daïkoku making pieces of gold rain down on a woman getting water from a well.

This year, still life surimonos began to appear and would furnish Hokusai with original compositions and admirable prints. These were small works with a dead duck and a porcelain bowl on a lacquered tray or a bird in a cage and a vase of flowers.

On these large plates, one can see the arrival of the manzai at a palace, where a group of children burst with joy welcoming them and where one sees, behind the blinds, the shadow theatre of princesses full of curiosity, but not showing themselves.

Courtesan Resting, c. 1802.

Black and coloured ink and gofun on paper, 29.2 × 44.8 cm.

Peter and Diana Grilli Collection.

Two Women and a Servant on the Banks of the Sumida; a Man Sealing the Bottom of a Boat, excerpt from the series Birds of the Old Capital (The Gulls) (Miyakodori), 1802.

Galerie Berès, Paris.

Concert under the Wisteria, c. 1796–1804.

Yoko-ōban, nishiki-e, 25.2 × 38.4 cm.

Musée national des Arts asiatiques – Guimet, Paris.

Tea House for Travellers, c. 1804.

Nishiki-e, 39 × 52 cm.

Museo d’Arte Orientale Edoardo Chiossone, Genoa.

In 1802, a small series of three plates represents a Japanese gesture game, with a judge, a hunter, and a fox. On one of the plates, a woman makes a fox with her hands close to her face and bent back in front of her. A series of twelve plates simulates scenes of the ronin by women and children.

A series was completed in honour of the moon, which is represented by women. A young woman is particularly graceful, her head turned backwards. With one hand, she holds a scarf of black crepe flying around her, a boshi, at her neck, and with the other hand, she holds a closed parasol against her. Another series is on Edo, showing industries and small landscapes. Yet another series bears the title ‘The twelve animals of the zodiac’, with the animals in the form of toys in the hands of elegant young women.

The year 1803 is marked by a series of thirty-six plates, ‘The Thirty-Six Occupations of Life’. Among these compositions, is a charming print of a young Japanese boy learning to write while his mother guides the hand holding the brush.

The artist also painted another series of five plates, ‘The Five Forces, Represented as Women’ and a series of ten plates, ‘The Five Elegant Knights’, also represented as women.

A series of seven plates, ‘The Seven Komatis’, represents the seven periods of the life of the poet Komati. This female poet with a checkered life is very popular in Japan. She had, at one time, the ambition of becoming the emperor’s mistress, so even when she had feelings for an educated lord of the court named Fukakusa-no-Shunshō, it is said she made the following pact: he would come talk with her of love and poetry for ninety-nine nights, and on the one hundredth night she would be his. The lover fulfilled the conditions imposed by the poet, but upon leaving her house on the ninety-ninth night – it was a very cold winter – he froze. The poet acquired the reputation of having died a virgin.

Among the large plates that Hokusai produced that year, one notes a young girl’s dance with a double parasol in a palace, with an orchestra behind a blind, and princesses behind another blind.

In 1804, a series bore the title ‘The Twelve Months of the Year’, and like all the other similar titles by the artist, consisted of small drawings of women.

One series has no title. It represented women of various classes: a noblewoman, a great courtesan, and a yotaka, a bird of the night, wandering among the construction sites and warehouses.

One also notes a series of ten plates, ‘Contemplation of the Beautiful Scenes of Edo’, and a series of ten plates with the title ‘The Ten Elements’.

Plates also appeared separately: a game for young girls, where one pronounces the names of animals and pinches the top of the hand of the girl who makes a mistake; flowering branches of shrubs on a paper resembling dimity; a curious still life that reminds one of the simplicity of the subjects treated by Chardin: on a bed of bamboo leaves rest a slice of salmon and a slice of katsuo, a fish highly prized by the Japanese. Some of the plates that appeared this particular year were done in large formats.

1804 was a year during which Hokusai published so many surimonos that it is not possible to list the entire catalogue. Among the surimonos from the Manzi collection, there are many very beautiful works 50 cm wide by 18 cm tall:

– A flight of seven cranes on a red background of the setting sun.

– A flowering plum tree with two pheasants at its foot and whose branches spread over a river, showing under the flowering greenery, a perspective of two boats.

– Three women are kneeling at the edge of a bay, their eyes looking out to sea, while a servant girl fans the fire of a stove heating some sake.

– Above a flowering cherry tree, two red throated swallows fly. Nothing can give a better idea of the softness than this plate and the subdued charm of these flowers, in the cloud on the print where an almost imperceptible embossing separates the pistils.

We can cite, among the surimonos from Mr. Gonse’s collection:

– A copse of trees by a river and the façade of the interior of a house where two men work, making dolls. This is the home of Toyokuni, Hokusai’s neighbour in Katsushika, at the time when Toyokuni was not yet a painter but a doll maker.

– A pink and white landscape that, with flowering fruit trees, is like the arrival of spring on a winter scene.

Among the surimonos in Mr. Vever’s collection, we can cite:

– A promenade in a temple by men and women examining paintings hung on the wall. A pair of Japanese men has stopped in front of a kakemono; one is looking at the painting, and the other is looking at the women.

– A man, in a ‘house of ill repute’, is smoking. His mistress, next to him, is, for her lover’s pleasure, making her kamuro, her servant girl, try a dance step while the dance teacher kneeling in front of her guides her movements.

We should also note, among the medium sized surimonos belonging to Mr. Havilland:

– A god of thunder settling, amidst lightning bolts, into the bath of a half-dressed woman.

– A wrestler or kami, for whom a woman is refilling a sake cup as large as a dish while two other women crouching at his feet are laughing at his fat, hairy belly.

Three Women with a Telescope, excerpt from the series Album of Kyōka – Mountain upon Mountain (Ehon kyōka), 1804.

Nishiki-e. Pulverer Collection, Cologne.

Panoramic View of the Sumida Banks with the Shin Yanagibashi and Ryōgokubashi Bridges, excerpt from the Illustrated Book of the Two Banks of the Sumida in One View (Ehon Sumidagawa ryōgan ichiran), c. 1803.

Illustrated book, nishiki-e, each sheet: 27.2 × 18.5 cm.

Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden.

Panoramic View of the Sumida Banks with the Shin Yanagibashi and Ryōgokubashi Bridges, excerpt from the Illustrated Book of the Two Banks of the Sumida in One View (Ehon Sumidagawa ryōgan ichiran), c. 1803.

Illustrated book, nishiki-e, each sheet: 27.2 × 18.5 cm.

Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden.

Panoramic View of the Sumida Banks with the Shin Yanagibashi and Ryogokubashi Bridges, excerpt from the Illustrated Book of the Two Banks of the Sumida in One View (Ehon Sumidagawa ryogan ichiran), c. 1803.

Illustrated book, nishiki-e, 27.2 × 18.5 cm.

Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden.

Among the large format surimonos:

– A view of the Sumida full of boats.

– Silk weavers at work in the countryside, one of whom is drawing a bed for the loom across the threads.

– Young Japanese men playing by a bridge. This print is signed: “Gwakiojin Hokusai, while drunk.”

Finally, we cite, from the collection of Mr. Chialiva:

– A unique surimono, the largest known surimono by the artist (L. 100 cm), representing a bridge in the style of the great bridge over the Sumida by Utamaro, and in which it is believed that Hokusai is shown in profile in a little black hat, witha bluish robe. On the bridge men and women walking take a break to rest and contemplate. There is also a group of three women, one of whom is leaning her head over the railing, looking at the river. A group of men are holding forth. One man, who has hung a flowering branch from a shrub on a beam, is half lying against the gate, while at the edge of the bridge a woman talks with a friend, her two hands pushing against the handrail in a charming, lifelike pose. This surimono, which is the union of two large surimonos, is signed: “Hokusai Sôri”.

1805:

– A six plate series on ‘Women Poets’.

– A series on the ‘Five Elements’.

– A series called Ténjin, after the name of a kami; a mother lifting, with a tender touch, a child above her head to help him pick flowers from a plum tree.

– A series, ‘Springtime Distractions’, in a slightly larger format than the normal format for series of women, and with a more sophisticated technique.

– This year being the year of the bull, one finds all sorts of representations of this animal, as under a rock of this shape.

Among the large plates, one finds:

– The entrance to a temple, where at the door, a man gives water to the faithful to make their ablutions.

– A travelling merchant presents, at the door of a home, washing products to some women.

– A doll’s party with an exhibition of many figurines on a cardboard display shelf, in the middle of which a taï is set for a light meal.

1806:

– A series of seven courtesans, among which one plays the shamisen with very graceful movements.

– A series entitled ‘The Various Countries’. These are imaginary countries. A stamp shows ‘The Kingdom of the Women’, where on one day of the year, under the influence of a west wind, all the women become pregnant. All the women are turned towards this wind.

– 1806 is the year of the tiger and one sees women wearing robes embroidered with tigers.

Among the large plates, one finds:

– The seven gods of the Japanese Olympus, hidden under the pelt of an immense Korean lion, which they make move.

– A landscape of the other side of the Sumida, where one sees the Asakusa temple.

– A boat loaded with barrels of sake.

1807:

– Two children wrestling.

– Two lovers stretched out one next to the other; the woman smoking a little pipe.

– Still lifes: two fish attached to a bamboo branch, a cardboard mask, front and back.

1808:

This year, the painter produced a very small number of surimonos, among which a large plate represents a screen, a bowl and a hairpin on a lacquered tray.

1809:

The little surimonos in which one sees fish, scallops and hawk feathers, used to dust delicate things.

Among the large plates, one finds:

– The making of a standard, whose motto is written in white on a blue background, on which six women are working, in pretty poses. The standard will be given to Yenoshima, at the temple of the goddess Benten.

1810:

Some small still lifes were created, and among others, a surimono representing sticks of India ink and a stamp box.

1812:

– A still life representing a cup and a lacquer display shelf.

1813:

– Okame reading a letter.

1816:

– Kintoki playing with animals.

1817:

– Women dressed in checked fabrics, as was the fashion that year.

– A noble lady, accompanied by a servant girl, passes before a gate where concert programs are posted.

1818:

– Two plates in a square format that will become the typical form for surimonos.

1819:

– Daïkoku walking on the banks of a river populated with fantastic lizards.

The year 1820 sees the reappearance of many surimonos, whose production has become quite rare in the preceding years. Curiously, the influences of Gakutei and Hokkei, two excellent students of Hokusai, can be felt in these works.

– A series of party floats, that one pulled through the streets.

– A series of five women poets.

– A series entitled ‘Comparison of the Strength of the Heroes of China and of Japan’.

Among the single plates, one finds a young girl printing a proof near a woodcutter who is cutting a plate, a man holding to him, posed on a go table, an elegant Japanese doll with marvellous colours coming out of a background of gold, harmoniously ‘green-grey’. One also sees many still lifes, such as a black lacquer bowl and a box of chopsticks, a large plate grouping a cask of sake, a spray of iris and chrysanthemums, and a basket of oranges. This surimono was executed for a banquet given in honour of an academic.

Parody of a Courtesan in a Boat, c. 1804–1805.

Black and coloured ink and gofun on paper, 34.8 × 56.4 cm.

Japanese Ukiyo-e Museum, Matsumoto.

Two Women and a Child on the Shore, c. 1804.

Nishiki-e, 18.9 × 51.6 cm.

Museo d’Arte Orientale Edoardo Chiossone, Genoa.

1821:

– A series entitled ‘The Brothers of the Warrior Subjects of China and Japan’. It evokes the resemblances between the heroic acts of the two countries.

– A large series on trades, of an unknown number.

– A series on trades at the seashore.

– Still lifes, including a series of scallops.

– An isolated page represents a large white snake, this snake is a good luck charm that is said to announce a happy event for he who has the good fortune to see it.

1822:

– One print is curious. It represents two enormous pearls emitting rays of some kind. They are being carried to the queen Jingo by the goddess of the ocean, who has come from her dragon palace. They are said to have the power to lower the tides, which allowed the goddess to seize Korea.

– A series of four plates entitled ‘Four Natures’: it contains a drawing of a crow of great character.

– As this year was the year of the horse in the Japanese calendar, this incited Hokusai to make one of his most perfect series of horses. This series in honour of the horse associated a wide range of trinkets, such as a bit or a saddle remind us of the horse; Hokusai, in this spirit went so far as to represent the street of the stirrups, where the images were sold and the stable wharf, which except for the name, has nothing to do with horses at all!

Gods and Poets, c. 1804.

Nishiki-e, 18.4 × 51.1 cm.

Museo d’Arte Orientale Edoardo Chiossone, Genoa.

1823:

– A series of actors, in five plates, actors in the style of Toyokuni, and that Hokusai signed: “I-itsu, the old man of Katsushika being a monkey and imitating others.”

1825:

– Two cranes at the seashore.

1826:

– Princess Tamamo-No-Mae, who is a nine tailed fox metamorphosed into a woman, whose nine tails are represented by the embossing of the print in the train of her robe.

1829:

– A woman riding a bull.

1835:

A fisherman at the seashore, a pipe in his mouth, a line between his legs crossed one over the other. One might be tempted to see, in this old bald man with a bony nose, a jeering mouth, and the physiognomy of an ironic kalmouck, a portrait of Hokusai. Moreover, the legend behind this plate is as follows, “what a novel thing to be able to grow a young bride (the name of a Japanese species of lettuce) in the sand at the beach!” This colour print was made for New Year’s Day of the year following the one in which Hokusai was able to arrange a marriage for his grandson, and with this double entendre he was able to express his joy at the entrance into the house of his grandson’s young bride.