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Fish, Beans, Chopstick Case and Lacquer Bowls

Fish, Beans, Chopstick Case and Lacquer Bowls

Katsushika Hokusai

This Japanese color woodcut is a surimono or privately commissioned print. Surimono often combine poetry and printmaking in a complex verbal and visual exchange with layers of meaning. This commission is a New Year’s greeting with two poems. Hokusai decorated the lacquerware bowls with cranes and pine, which are mentioned in the poems. In the lower right he depicted a traditional Japanese New Year’s cuisine: kuromame, or sweet black soybeans, scattered around a tazakuri, or candied sardine.
Artist
Katsushika Hokusai
(Japanese, 1760 - 1849)
Title
Fish, Beans, Chopstick Case and Lacquer Bowls
Date
probably 1823
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
209 x 179 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.2375
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

By 1925, purchased in Japan by Frank Lloyd Wright; ca. 1926, acquired by The Bank of Wisconsin; 1928, sold to Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "The Edward Burr Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1990. p. 214

  • Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints, The: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 10/7/1990–11/25/1990

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