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Poetic Travel

A work made of color woodblock print; surimono.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of color woodblock print; surimono.

Date:

1st month, 1883

Artist:

Shibata Zeshin
Japanese, 1807-1891

About this artwork

Shibata Zeshin depicts a section of a sugoroku board game featuring the Tokaido highway. The game appeared early in Japanese history, and, by the early modern period, it had become widely popular. It was also traditionally played at New Year’s, making it a fitting subject for this print, which is dated from January. The Tokaido sugoroku pitted players against each other as they traveled along the highway stations on a large woodblock-printed board.
Zeshin inscribed the players’ markers with their names. As a joke, he wrote his own name and the name of the host of this surimono poetry gathering, Hirota Seichi, on two of the cards. The print demonstrates Seichi’s ability to gather a wide range of participants, likely his students and friends, of which Zeshin seems to have been one. They may also have gathered around a game of sugoroku in real life.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Arts of Asia

Artist

Shibata Zeshin

Title

Poetic Travel

Place

Japan (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1883

Medium

Color woodblock print; surimono

Dimensions

58 × 43.7 cm (22 7/8 × 17 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Charles H. Mitchell Collection unrestricted gift

Reference Number

1972.2016

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/43733/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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