Surimono catalogue FINAL WEB.pdf - Sanders of Oxford

Harukawa Goshichi was born in Edo and in 1818 he moved to Kyoto. At the beginnning of his
career he drew and published portraits of actors as well as surimono. Goshichi also wrote and
illustrated his own novels. He was possibly a pupil of Harukawa Eizan, from whom he took his
name.
Kikugawa Hidemaro (fl. 1804-1817)
Hidemaro Kitagawa was a pupil of Utamaro. During Utamaro’s last years he was active in
assisting his master in book illustrations.
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Utagawa Hiroshige was born in Edo, the son of a supervisor of a brigade of firemen. He studied
painting with a neighbour, Okajima Rinsai, and 1811, at the age of fourteen, he began to study with
the ukiyo-e artist Toyohiro. In 1814 his first print was published, but it was not unitl 1818 that he
produced prints in any number. In about 1821, he produced his first square surimono and during
the next decade he designed over two dozen more – a small number compared to the many
thousands of commerical prints.
Totoya Hokkei (1780-1850)
One of Hokusai’s earliest and most gifted pupils, Hokkei was particularly renowned in the field of
surimono. Before his initial training with Kanô Yôsen’ in Korenobu, he worked as a fishmonger
at Yotsuya Samegahashi, hence the unusual art surname of Totoya/Uoya (fish shop). Hokkei’s
first work appeared in 1799. He designed a number of surimono in the 1800s and 1810s, but he
did not master the art of desiging them until the late 1810s. Besides surimono and illustrations
for poetry albums, Hokkei designed a few illustrations for popular fiction and some commercially
published prints.
Teisai Hokuba (1771-1844)
Teisai Hokuba was an inactive retainer of the shogun: later in his life he too lay religious orders.
He was active in the 1800s and 1810 as an illustrator of popular fiction, but also designed a
few surimono during this period and continued to design illustrations for privately printed poetry
anthologies thereafter. He may have been one of Hokusai’s earliest pupiles and adopted the
name Hokuba while Hokusai was still using the name Sori.
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)
Hokusai began his career as a print designer in 1779 as a pupil of Katsukawa Shunso. Hokusai
appears to have become intrigued by the surimono in the 1790s. Fumiko Togasaki, in her 1979
essay on Hokusai’s surimono, suggests that this was related to the Kansei Reforms of 1790, which
attempted to control morals and manners as well as publications, including woodblock prints. Each
print was required to have the official approval of the Tokugawa government, and from this year
on a censor mark appeared on every print. Surimono needed neither publisher nor government
approval, because it was privately printed at the patron’s own expense.
In 1796, Hokusai designed a number of surimono and privately published album sheets. From
1799 to 1809, he produced a large number of surimono prints, but relatively few in the following
decade. In 1820 Hokusai resumed designing surimono and produced a large number in the two