The Ditch Shell (Mizogai), from the series Matching Game of Immortal Genroku-Era Poems with Shells (Genroku Kasen kai awase) Artist: Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849)

1821 (Year of the Snake)

Asian Art

By appointment, Duffy Study Room

葛飾北斎　「元禄歌仙貝合 みぞ貝」 江戸時代


Katsushika Hokusai was one of the most innovative Japanese artists of all time, and his subject matter ranges widely. This surimono, one of a series of prints each named after shells and depicting children engaging in various activities, is rare among his long and illustrious career. The domestic scene is playfully named The Ditch Shell, or Mizogai. Although the nature of the game is unclear, two girls are shown intently competing in hitting small black balls, identified as mukuroji (nuts of the soapberry tree), along the architectural groove, or mizo, of the sliding doors, while two other children look on. The nuts were used as shuttlecocks, or hago, by attaching feathers.

Medium

Surimono, shikishi-ban; polychrome woodblock print with brass, gold, and silver pigment and light gauffrage

Dimensions

sheet: 7 11/16 × 7 1/16 in. (19.5 × 18 cm)

Credit Line

Promised gift of Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian, B.A. 1970

Loan number

ILE2017.30.183

Geography

Japan

Culture

Japanese

Period

Edo period (1615–1868)

Classification

Prints

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Joan B. Mirviss (dealer), New York; sold to Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian, Koenigstein im Taunus, Germany, 2005 (on loan to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2017–present)
Bibliography
  • Sadako Ohki and Adam Haliburton, The Private World of Surimono: Japanese Prints from the Virginia Shawan Drosten and Patrick Kenadjian Collection (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2020), 128–30, no. 33, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

color woodcuts, surimono

Inscriptions

Gettchirojin Iitsu:\r\n--A shuttlecock blown by the wind \r\nlands down the child's plummy sleeve--\r\na ball bounced by the hand of spring.\r\n\r\n\r\nShuuchoudou Monoyana:\r\n--Tender willow buds \r\nblow open in the spring breeze! \r\nAnd a scent of plum \r\nruns along the door's wooden seams.\r\n\r\nTranslated AH 3/6/2018\r\n元禄歌仙貝合　みぞ貝　Mizogai (old name for Karasugai noted for clear grooves on the surface; The Ditch Shell) Matching Game of Genroku Immortal Poem Shells \r\n\r\nPoem 1: 若松亭　美鳥　Wakamatsutei Midori\r\n\r\n春風の　手尓徒く毬や　梅可香の　袖被へも　と満る羽子のこ\r\n\r\nharukaze no/ te ni tsuku mari ya/ umega ka no/ sode o'oi emo/ tomaru hago no ko\r\n\r\n(a ball bounced by hand in the spring wind sends plum scent even to the sleeve-cover where shuttlecock stops.)\r\n\r\nPoem 2: 秋長堂物簗　Shuuchoudou Monoyana (1761 - 1830)\r\n\r\n春風に　青柳のめも　婦き椋や　鴨居の溝を　はしる梅ヶ香\r\n\r\nharukaze ni/ aoyagi no me mo/ fuki muku ya/ kamoi no mizo wo/ hashiru\r\numegaka\r\n\r\n(spring wind blow off the green willow's buds. It bring the plum scent run at the grooves of the threshold?)\r\n\r\nEnglish tentative. SO 2-27-2018

Signed

Getchirōjin Iitsu hitsu
月痴老人　為一筆
Gecchi rōjin Iitsu hitsu
(brushed by Lunatic Old man Iitsu)

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