Parrot and Bells

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Tanaka Shutei, a painter and print designer, created a design of an exotic pet parrot on a metal stand for the haiku poet Kyuso, who seems to have been the leader of various poetry groups. In each of these three prints , Kyuso chose to repeat the same basic design, although he was celebrating poetry collections by different groups on different occasions. He appears as host in every print, but he supplied a separate poem for each, and the other members were also different. The repetition of design implies that poetry hosts were not merely passive customers; they were often actively engaged in the production of prints.

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