Parody on the Rokkasen (Six Immortal Poets)

The celebrated Edo (now Tokyo) artist Katsushika Hokusai designed this deluxe surimono woodblock print in the colorfully outlined “floating world picture” (ukiyo-e) style. It is a New Year (seitan) print depicting a group of six mostly seated ladies of varied ages and costumes—suggesting varied social occupations and ages, from courtesan to country peasant—positioned around a bird cage. Their longing to hear the bird’s first song of the New Year is the subject of the poetic verse at the top of the composition:

With New Year Dreams we rise
yet the uguisu [bush warbler]
still needs sleep
spring dawn!

The first song of the bush warbler (Japanese nightingale) housed in the bird cage is part of the celebrations of the New Year, as are the plum and pine branches wrapped in straw on the ground set before the woman at the lower right of the print.