Spring Rain Collection (Harusame shū), vol. 1: “Offering Incense to the Deity of the Stone” (Yōgōishi), from the series History of Kamakura (Kamakura shi)

Spring Rain Collection (Harusame shū), vol. 1: “Offering Incense to the Deity of the Stone” (Yōgōishi), from the series History of Kamakura (Kamakura shi)

Kubo Shunman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Surimono are privately published woodblock prints, usually commissioned by individual poets or poetry groups as a form of New Year’s greeting card. The poems, most commonly kyōka (witty thirty-one syllable verse), inscribed on the prints usually include felicitous imagery connected with spring, which in the lunar calendar begins on the first day of the first month. Themes of surimono are often erudite, frequently alluding to Japanese literary classics in both texts and images. This series by the celebrated surimono designer Kubo Shunman refers to a historical chronicle of the ancient Japanese city of Kamakura, which was the seat of the military government from 1185 to 1333. Here, a boy offers incense to the human manifestation of local deity (kami), which usually appears as a stone.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Spring Rain Collection (Harusame shū), vol. 1: “Offering Incense to the Deity of the Stone” (Yōgōishi), from the series History of Kamakura (Kamakura shi)Spring Rain Collection (Harusame shū), vol. 1: “Offering Incense to the Deity of the Stone” (Yōgōishi), from the series History of Kamakura (Kamakura shi)Spring Rain Collection (Harusame shū), vol. 1: “Offering Incense to the Deity of the Stone” (Yōgōishi), from the series History of Kamakura (Kamakura shi)Spring Rain Collection (Harusame shū), vol. 1: “Offering Incense to the Deity of the Stone” (Yōgōishi), from the series History of Kamakura (Kamakura shi)Spring Rain Collection (Harusame shū), vol. 1: “Offering Incense to the Deity of the Stone” (Yōgōishi), from the series History of Kamakura (Kamakura shi)

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.