Plum Blossom and Green Willow: Japanese Surimono Poetry Prints from the Ashmolean Museum

Because money was no object, surimono usually used the finest materials and printing techniques. Most consisted of a picture combined with related poems, and the arrangement of the illustration and the calligraphic text was often very beautifully designed. Exquisite in design and technique and usually small in size, surimono have been described as 'jewels of Japanese printmaking' and have great visual appeal. Despite this, this will be the first time that the Ashmolean's collection of surimono, mostly from the Jennings-Spalding Gift and containing a number of rare and previously unpublished prints, has ever been catalogued.

Clare Pollard is the Curator of Japanese Art at the Ashmolean Museum. Kiyoko Hanaoka is a long-serving Volunteer in the Eastern Art Department of the Ashmolean Museum.