are a genre of Japanese woodblock print

Woodblock printing in Japan

Woodblock printing in Japan is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only...

. They were privately commissioned for special occasions such as the New Year

Japanese New Year

The is one of the most important annual festivals, with its own unique customs, and has been celebrated for centuries. Due to the importance of the holiday and the preparations required, the preceding days are quite busy, particularly the day before, known as Ōmisoka.The Japanese New Year has been...

. 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 printing technique, than commercial prints. They were most popular from the 1790s to the 1830s, and many leading artists produced them.

Use

In most cases Surimono were commissioned by poetry societies to illustrate the winning poem in a poetry contest judged by the master of the society. Such prints generally had a small format, often c. 205 x 185 mm, and the relief carving of the Kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

 characters took a great deal of technical skill.
Kabuki

Kabuki

is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...

 actors also commissioned surimono prints to commemorate important events in their careers, such as changes of name and stage debuts of their sons.

External links

• Surimono on the website of the University of California at Santa Barbara Art Museum