Totoya HOKKEI (1780 – 1850)
Series: Fundarike jūsanban no uchi kai tsukushi (A Series of Shell Images for the Poets Club Fundarike)
Signature: Hokkei
Date: 1821
Poems:
Light: Poem by Asahi Ujukata: Haru no hi no / nakagi mo kata ni / wasurete wa / kaeru shihonaku / miyuru otome wa. (On a day in spring, don’t forget yourself and stay too long on the beach and find no beach for return like these searching maidens.
Middle: Poem by Asahi Machiuo: Shiohigata / chirasujigai ya / kaioke no / Futamigaura ni / asobu taoyame. (Girls amuse themselves by the Bay of Double Views, the tidal basin littered with seashells and with shell baskets.)
Left: Poem by Asahi Sashiyasu: Taoyame no / hirou hoshigata wa / ustukushiki / hamagurizuma mo / miyuru Shibaura. (How lovely the beach where the maidens brave the tide and gather seashells - Shibaura, a sight to see, with all its clams and pretty girls.)
Original Japanese Woodblock Print