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Overview
Surimono are a genre of Japanese woodblock print and were privately commissioned for special occasions such as the New Year. "Surimono" literally means "printed thing". Being produced in small numbers for a mostly educated audience of literati, surimono were often more experimental in subject matter and treatment, and extravagant in quality of paper and virtuosity of printing technique, than more mainstream commercial prints.
One of the most elegant surimono acquired by Te Papa in 2016, refined and simple in its means, is Shibata Zeshin's (1807-91) undated composition of a humble gourd flask, cup and butterfly - a paen to Taoist values of living a humble life, in tune with nature and at one with the world. The assurance of Zeshin's work stems from the peculiar synthesis of his early training in lacquer making, studying painting with Suzuki Nanrei and Okamoto Toyohiko, and studying literature with Kawara Keiju and Rai San'yō. He also had good knowledge of haiku poetry and the tea ceremony. The poetic simplicity of Zeshin's surimono and drawings was much favoured by the great French collector Henri Vever (1854-1942). Zeshin melded a reverence for nature, Chinese style asummetrical arrangements and an elegant Maruyama-Shijō school fluidity of gyō, the 'semi-formal' cursive brush mark.
Sources:
David Bell and Mark Stocker, 'Rising sun at Te Papa: the Heriot collection of Japanese art', Tuhinga, 29 (2018), https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/document/10608
Wikipedia, 'Surimono', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surimono
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art May 2019