
Katsushika Hokusai
Free delivery in Switzerland from CHF 99. 14-day returns. Delivery details
Katsushika Hokusai, 1800
Two women, each with a hand puppet, play out a comic scene from the puppet theatre in this small, finely made Japanese print.
No VAT charged. Free delivery in Switzerland from CHF 99. Delivery details
This is a surimono, a luxury print that traditionally pairs an image with poems. Here two women appear with hand puppets, one wearing a headscarf and the other a bald samurai. The scene depicts the comic interlude performed during puppet theatre, known as jôruri. It belongs to a series titled Noroma kyôgen, and the title on the print is Kagamitogi, the mirror polisher. Hokusai made it as a colour woodblock print, with a black outline block and blocks of colour, on paper. It dates from roughly 1800 to 1810. The poems that once belonged to the sheet have been trimmed away, so the figures and their puppets take centre stage. Surimono were often made for poets and given to friends as special gifts.
On your wall: Its playful figures and small-scale charm suit a study, a hallway or a reading corner, where it rewards a closer look.
Public domain. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Text based on Wikimedia Commons.
Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese painter and printmaker who worked in the ukiyo-e tradition during the Edo period. He helped widen the style beyond portraits of courtesans and actors to include landscapes, plants and animals. His series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes The Great Wave off Kanagawa, influenced Van Gogh and Monet.
Based on Wikipedia.
Printed on canvas and stretched over a 2 cm FSC-certified wooden frame, with the image wrapping around the edges. Framed versions sit in a wooden floater frame in black, natural or dark wood.
Every canvas is printed to order by our partner in Germany: framed canvases arrive in 6–11 working days, unframed ones in 7–12 working days. Delivery is free in Switzerland on orders from CHF 99. We also deliver to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and many more countries, printed close to you where possible. You can return an undamaged canvas within 14 days. See delivery and returns.