A Chinese Looking Out of the Window

The same poet also appears, with two Nagoya poets, in RP-P-1958-373, and as Kansado Umekazu, with Umetatsu and Kazumasu in RP-P-1958-362. Moreover, we find him with, amongst others, Kazumasu in the print Tojibai from A Series for the Hanazono Poetry Club, Hanazono bantsuzuki, of c. 1822 (e.g. RP-P-1958-357) and in the print Eguchi from A Series of No Chants for the Hanazono Poetry Club, Hanazono yokyoku bantsuzuki, of c. 1826 (see RP-P-1958-374), both designed by Hokkei.

The Mogyu, or Mêng Ch'iu, is a work originally written by Li Han during the Chinese T'ang dynasty (618-960). A contemporary Japanese translation, which may have assisted Hokkei in his work, appeared in 1801 as The Illustrated Mogyu, Mogyu zue, illustrated by Shimokobe Jusui. Hokkei returned to the work in 1833 and illustrated the two-volume A Collection of Kyoka Poems and Portraits from the Mogyu, Mogyu gazo kyokashu issued by the Gogawa poetry club.² Although it is difficult to establish what the possible association with the Snake Year was, this, together with the fact that one design from the series, by Kori (see below), was preserved in an album compiled in 1821/ 1822, has led to the dating here to the Snake Year 1821.

All the prints from this series have a specially treated ground, blindprinted with a pattern imitating silk and suggestive of paintings (cf. RP-P-1991-619). It was apparently designed for the Hanazonoren and its subdivisions, the Umezonoren and the Momozonoren, and marked the beginning of an intensive collaboration in the 1820s. This club had worked with Shunman earlier, but his untimely death in 1820 meant they had to find another 'in-house' designer. After apparently satisfactory collaborations on a number of print series with Shunman, the poetry club also worked with Hokkei on almost annual volumes of kyoka poetry, starting with the 1823 Kyoka as a Mirror of Elegant Women, Kyoka onna fuzoku kagami.³ Further volumes can be identified for 1824⁴ and 1827⁵ until the Kyoka as Bells along the Tokaido, Kyoka — Tokai ekiro no suzu, of 1830.⁶ This series appears to have been the first time the Hanazono poetry club (of which the Umezonoren was a subdivision) collaborated with Hokkei on the format of series of surimono. This collaboration continued on what seems to have been an annual basis for the first half of the 1820s; see, for example, the series on first activities of the New Year titled A Series for the Hanazono Poetry Club, Hanazono bantsuzuki, of c. 1822 (e.g. RP-P-1958-357), another series with the same title on various kinds of plums for 1823 (e.g. RP-P-1958-318), the one on vigorous old people for 1824, titled A Series for Those Who Still Have Their Teeth, Shoshikai bantsuzuki (e.g. RP-P-1958-375), and that on heroes of the Suikoden and the Five Elements, Suiko gogyo, for 1825 RP-P-1958-313 and RP-P-1958-321. Especially those for the early 1820s are larger; later, their number decreased considerably.

Eight of the designs were sold at Paul Graupe (no ill.).⁷

For other designs in the series, see:
Fukuha, a bow in his hands, by a road-sign - for the Hanazonoren
Hanrei and others in a boat, a pine is the foreground - Hanazonoren
Kori about to stab his sword into a well - Hanazonoren (an album compiled in 1821/1822)⁸
Okyo reading a book flying on two geese - Momozonoren⁹
Roboshi fishing from a jutting rock, the Emperor Wen Wang approaching
Saji conjuring a carp - Momozonoren¹⁰
Shibo (or Choryo) offering a sandal so Kosekiko - Momozonoren.