Art Institute of Chicago

The Cup of Long Life

Shibata Zeshin

Date

spring 1883

Medium

Color woodblock print; surimono

Culture

Japan

Department

Arts of Asia

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This colorful print shows an engraved black-lacquer box and a red-lacquer sake cup with myriad characters. The box is inscribed “long life sake cup,” and the cup is covered with the many different versions of the character for “long life” ( kotobuki ). There were traditionally 100 variations of this character, emphasizing this number as the ultimate in longevity. The host of this print was the poet, author, and essayist Kameda Hozan. Many examples of large-scale surimono by Shibata Zeshin exist; he must have set up a large establishment in order to cater to orders from poets and intellectuals. Since Zeshin was engaged in many official commissions in other media and had a large group of apprentices, he probably left most of the details of surimono production to his apprentices.

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