A Painting Made of Shells

…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1986;¹¹Coll. cat. Goslings 1999, p. 99, cat. no. 167 by whom donated to the museum, 1991

ObjectNumber: RP-P-1991-611

Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse

For other surimono featuring similar screens with representations made of shells, cf. an anonymous very early design for 1785²²Forrer, Matthi, Surimono/egoyomi. Dusseldorf: Ukiyo-e Galerie Herbert Egenolf, 1978, p. 1.; a very similar egoyomi for 1797³³Mirviss, Joan B. and John T. Carpenter, The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono. New York: Weatherhill; Phoenix, Ariz.: Phoenix Art Museum, 1995, p. 293.; a surimono by Shunman for the New Snake Year 1809⁴⁴Keyes, Roger S., Surimono: Privately Published Japanese Prints in the Spencer Museum of Art. Tokyo/New York: Kodansha International Ltd., 1984, p. 206, Fujisawa Morihiko korekushon surimono o chuushin to shite (The Fujisawa Morihiko Collection: with a Stress on Surimono) Tokyo: Ota Memorial Museum of Art, 1998, p. 48.; one by Hokkei issued for 1821⁵⁵Asano, Shugo, Suijintachi no okurimono. Edo no surimono (Cultivated Gifts: Surimono of the Edo Period). Chiba: Chibashi Bijutsukan, 1997, p. 162.; and a depiction of the Miyamoto Station on the way from Edo to Enoshima in Totoya Hokkei's series A Journal of a Trip to Enoshima, Enoshima kiko, for 1833⁶⁶Keyes, Roger S., The Art of Surimono. Privately Published Japanese Woodblock Prints and Books in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, 2 vols. London: Sotheby’s Publications, 1985, p. 150, Asano, Shugo, Suijintachi no okurimono. Edo no surimono (Cultivated Gifts: Surimono of the Edo Period). Chiba: Chibashi Bijutsukan, 1997, p. 60.. All these apparently feature identical screens, reflecting a common practise in the souvenir business of any period anywhere, whereby the same image is reproduced multiple times on a myriad of different objects.

A framed picture shaped as a two-panelled screen, depicting various flowers made of shells. To the right a maple leaf, a cherry blossom and an iris, to the left wisteria and another flower. The poem is written on the envelope at left, which contains several wooden sticks.

Small screens with representations made of shells were popular souvenirs of Enoshima Island in Sagami Province, a popular day-trip from the capital. As there was a major shrine devoted to the Goddess Benten on the island, associative thinking so typical of Edo-period (1603-1868) Japan led to Enoshima Island and its shells being linked to her. Benten is also associated with snakes, which live on land and in water, and her shrines are usually near water. Moreover, Benten came to be associated with the Year of the Snake; consequently, so were Enoshima Island and the shells found on the mainland beaches opposite the island. This connection is especially important in series such as those based on shells, e.g., Shinsai's series A Matching Game of Poems, Kasen awase, for 1809 (e.g. RP-P-1991-561); Hokusai's series A Matching Game with the Genroku Poem Shells, Genroku kasen kaiawase, for 1821 (e.g. RP-P-1991-474); and A Series of Shells, Kaitsukushi, by Hokkei, also for 1821 (e.g. RP-P-1958-347).

In this calendar print, egoyomi, the shapes of the shells or the stems also form the numerals 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11 and 12, indicating the long months of 1797 on the right panel, and those for the short months, 2, 4, 6, intercalary 7 and 9, on the left panel.

One poem by Miyako no Chikae [also Sanshotei, earlier Kintaro Chikae, a judge of the Yomogawa].⁷⁷Kano, Kaian (ed.), Kyoka jinmei jisho (Dictionary of Names of Kyoka Poets). Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1977 (1928), p. 129. The poem alludes to the flowers represented on the shell screen:

It is good to open the shell-screen around the time the Goddess of Spring also awakens - a happy New Year full of flowers.

Issued by the poet
Unsigned
Produced by the Shuchodo Studio, seal, in red, reading: Shuchodo

M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 16

M. Forrer, 2013, 'anonymous, A Painting Made of Shells, Japan, 1797', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.363064