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One: HISTORY OF

SURIMONO

Historical Background

Fifteen years after the battle at Sekigahara (1600) had been fought, Hideyoshi's son Hideyori had taken his own life in the burning palace of Osaka. Japan had changed. The endless wars between the daimyō were past. Now Tokugawa Ieyasu and his successors had unlimited power in all Japan, and all daimyō had to submit to the Tokugawa shōgun. Peace had come; it had been imposed by harsh laws, but was to last for 260 years.

Such a long peace left the samurai impoverished and unfit even for battle. The merchants, on the other hand, grew rich and developed a desire for beauty in life. The middle-class culture of the Edo period arose. (Edo is the ancient name for Tokyo; the Edo or Tokugawa period lasted from 1600-1867, i.e., the time during which the Tokugawa shōgun ruled over Japan from Tokyo.)

The turning point in Japanese cultural life can be precisely determined. The people who streamed to Edo after the establishment of the Tokugawa rule had considered themselves provincial until the Great Fire of 1657, which lasted for three days and turned, all of Edo into ashes. Not until after the fire, when everything had been beautifully rebuilt, did they consider themselves citizens of the country's capital and residence of Japan's rulers. People in Edo were no longer dependent on Osaka and Kyoto, they had reason to be proud. The military caste still suppressed all other social classes, but people had money for pleasure, theatre, and the Yoshiwara (the gay quarters of Edo). They were in a position to decorate the interior of their homes and to purchase and collect printed pictures designed by first-class professional artists. Obviously this development did not come overnight. There were both good and bad Tokugawa shōgun. During Genroku (1688-1704), many of the arts flourished; but the sumptuary laws persisted until 1854, when Commodore Perry forced the Japanese to open the first harbours to foreigners.

Around about this time, the last great masters of the classical Japanese art of woodblock carving died. But the golden years of this art had already passed decades before. It flourished in a time when the people did not yet know freedom, when craftsmen as well as artists and merchants still belonged to the suppressed lower classes. They had to be careful not to draw any attention to themselves. In former centuries, only the princes and the Buddhist temples had been the patrons and clients of the artists. Farmers, craftsmen, and merchants did not yet play a role at that time. Not until the middle of the eighteenth century did it become apparent that merchants also had taste and appreciation for poetry, good, pictures, theatre, and the like. They founded societies in which they received instruction in art and in 31-or 17-syllable poems. Congenial friends gathered there—artists, art lovers, poets, writers, craftsmen, merchants, and also a few unprejudiced samurai.

The designers of those pictures which were to be multiplied through the process of woodblock printing were called ukiyo-e-shi. They earned their livelihood by painting hand-coloured scrolls, wall hangings, book illustrations, placards, and commercial signs, etc., but chiefly by creating the designs for woodblock prints, i.e., the so-called ukiyo-e, pictures of the kaleidoscopic changing or "floating world." These ukiyo-e can be divided into three groups. First, there were those which were commissioned by publishers and sold commercially (they represented beautiful girls, actors, wrestlers, historical and legendary figures, and landscapes). Second, there were the erotic pictures (higiga, shunga, or makura-e). All Japanese ukiyo-e-shi painted, and designed erotic pictures with the exception of Sharaku. Such pictures were in great demand. They were placed under the pillow of newly wed couples. Third, there was the group called surimono (摺物),pictures of a much smaller size which were distributed to friends as gifts on festive occasions, particularly at the New Year's celebration.

Of the three groups in the family of ukiyo-e, the erotic pictures represent the elder brother who is evil and who is pursued by the police. The large-sized (ōban) pictures, which were sold commercially, represent the younger brother who is greatly admired by all. The surimono would be the beautiful and very elegant little sister.

Woodblock Prints Older than Surimono

The ukiyo-e art of woodblock printing is not old. Iwasa Matabei (1578-1650) was the first artist who hand-painted ukiyo-e but it is not probable that he made designs for wood blocks. The grand start of the ukiyo-e woodblock prints was launched by Hishikawa Moronobu (1618-94) who created single sheets and exquisite book illustrations, the versatility of which led to the great beginning.

Moronobu and other so-called primitive artists had been taught by painters of the Tosa and Kanō schools. Many generations of artists passing through these two schools had created magnificent pictures on silk or paper, sliding doors or screens for princes, Buddhist temples and monasteries. By their woodblock prints Moronobu and his successors brought art to the people.

The Kanō school appealed to the so-called primitives and also to much later artists far more than the solemn, dignified Tosa school. The Kanō school was known for its strong lines, most graceful in their movements——quite the same attributes which distinguish the best ukiyo-e.

The old primitive, one-coloured or hand-coloured woodblock prints today belong to the best and most valuable pictures of Japanese art. The "Golden Age" of ukiyo-e art, however, only began after the invention of the multicoloured printing method in 1765. Immediately afterwards the first simple calendar prints appeared which led to the ukiyo-e masterpieces par excellence, the surimono.

Distribution of Surimono and Influence of Art Clubs

A wood block exists showing three citizens on their way to friends to wish them a Happy New Year (printed in Rose Hempel's catalogue of the Theodor Scheiwe Collection, no. 304, p. 182). Behind them two servants are walking with a stack of surimono. The citizens had willingly paid a good price for their surimono to the printer-artist who was highly esteemed. The plan or idea often came from art-sensitive and talented citizens, but the picture, and often the idea too, came from the painter-artist. Poems on the surimono were also written by these citizens, since they were members of a literary club called ren in which they practiced the art of poetry, generally under the instruction of a renowned poet.

The ren or renjū were clubs or groups which accomplished a great deal a few decades prior to and after the year 1800. The ren were occupied with poetry in general and with the composing of haiku (17-syllable poems), kyōka (comic poems), or tanka (31-syllable poems); also with music, theatre, and the collecting and exchanging of pictures. Occasionally artistic competitions with friendly ren were held. Members were art-loving-citizens, merchants, a few hatamoto (samurai in the service of a shōgun), samurai, and professional artists. The names of a few ren have come down to us through history, especially the following: Kyosen Ren, Kiku Ren, Yomo Ren, Jōmō Shieyo Ren, Nagauta Kineya Renjū, and the Hanagasa Ren. Leaders of such clubs were Kyosen (Kikurensha Kyosen) and Sakei, both of whom were hatamoto.

Another club existed which collected calendar prints and was led by the famous scholar Hirata Atsutane, one of Japan's most learned historians and writers, He wrote commentaries to the Kojiki and Nihongi, the oldest annals of Japan. Hirata was a scholar, philosopher, dramatist, and the first to enlighten the people about the rights of the imperial family. He died in 1843.

Even today haiku and kyōka are taught in Japan in Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and elsewhere. But how far the Japanese of today are removed from the artistic New Year's wishes of the Kansei, Kyōwa, and Bunka periods (17891818) ! Today wealthy Japanese have a secretary prepare a list of persons who sent them New Year's wishes from the previous year as well as a list of newly made friends. Somebody is sent to the post office to buy a few hundred printed post cards. The post cards have no pictures as the old surimono had, but a lottery number instead. Thus the specially designed picture by an artist or a personally written poem have been replaced by a lottery number from which the recipient, if he is lucky, can win a few postage stamps. This is the trend of the time—not only in Japan but all over the world beautiful old customs are sacrificed for the sake of expediency.

In order to flourish, every kind of art needs a sounding board, in other words, appreciative admirers of the works of art. The art clubs were the sounding board of ukiyo-e, and especially of surimono art. The elite of the artistically interested middle class formed the ren and patronized the arts.