HOKKEI: kakuban surimono (19.3 x 18cm.); the mekari, seaweed gathering, festival in Nagato province. A temple servant at night is depicted, holding a burning firebrand high over his head, as he runs along a beach between waves, accompanied by poems by Miwasha Suginari of Nagato [Yamaguchi prefecture] and Konkontei Yamagiwa of Yamaguchi in Suo [Yamaguchi prefecture], signed Oju Hokkei hitsu--good impression, some fading and wear around the edges, slightly trimmed

Details

HOKKEI: kakuban surimono (19.3 x 18cm.); the mekari, seaweed gathering, festival in Nagato province. A temple servant at night is depicted, holding a burning firebrand high over his head, as he runs along a beach between waves, accompanied by poems by Miwasha Suginari of Nagato [Yamaguchi prefecture] and Konkontei Yamagiwa of Yamaguchi in Suo [Yamaguchi prefecture], signed Oju Hokkei hitsu--good impression, some fading and wear around the edges, slightly trimmed

Provenance

Wakai Kenzaburo

Lot Essay

Another impression from the Paul Walter collection was sold in these Rooms, October 23, 1992, lot 22. Hillier illustrates another impression in Japanese Prints & Drawings from the Vever Collection, (London: Sotheby, Parke-Bernet, 1976), no. 756, p. 785.

Hokkei portrayed a similar scene in his Shokoku meisho "Famous places in the various provinces" series, with the title Nagato mekuri no jinsha "the festival at Meguri in Nagato." An annual purification ceremony took place here, during which me, an edible seaweed, was cut.