Hokkei: Surimono of a Copper Kettle from the Five Elements Series (SOLD)

Artist: Totoya Hokkei (1780-1850)
Title: Surimono of a Copper Kettle from the Five Elements Series (Metal)
Date: ca. 1820

“Metal”, from the series “Gogyô”; The Five Elements. A beautifully simplified rendering of a red copper kettle with a silver handle beside an upturned iron trivet. The kettle is decorated with a stylized paulownia crest, long associated with the imperial family and then the Ashikaga shoguns. Atop the kettle is a purple cloth to protect the user from the heated handle. Another example is illustrated in “The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Surimono” on page 96, with the poems translated into English by John T. Carpenter. The first poem by Sakudô Maruki: “Made of black iron,/ the trivet has three talons,/ like the three-legged crow/ which dwells in the sun/ as the new spring dawns.” The second by Sairaikyo: “The warrior’s formal robes--/ arranged like a kettle/ with hailstone texture/ on a trivet with three fingers/ stretched out for spring.” With metallic pigments and blindprinting in the trivet and cloth. Provenance: Werner Schindler collection (seal verso). 

SKU: HKI031