The famous aristocratic calligrapher Ono no Tofu pauses to look back over his shoulder towards the viewer, having just written calligraphy onto a large paper layed on a low table.

The image is set within a broad border of cracked ice, plum blossoms. and a triple bun (literature) character forming a circle (the symbol of the Katsushika group of poets, of which the Ichiyo group was a sub-division). Gakutei selected pairs of Chinese and Japanese subjects for the four "friends" of writing; paper, ink, brush and inkstone, thus the total in the series is eight.

An impression of the 1828 surimono is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession no. JP1133, go to: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60025481
Post Lot Text
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