Rocks and Plum Trees

This print is a collaboratively designed New Year surimono with Chinese-style decorative Taihu rocks against a background of plum blossoms. The plums and New Year poems on the print both connect it to the New Year, as does an inscribed date next to the last of the 82 poems.

Most of the prints in this exhibition are collaborative works in that they feature the poetry and designs of many members of the cultural groups that commissioned them. In contrast, these designs of rocks and plums were created by two different artists, although both were made in the gassaku tradition often favored by Osaka and Kyoto artists. Gyotoku Gyokko created the flowering plum trees, while Tanomura Shosai drew the distinctive Chinese rocks below.