Japan

and Pocket Sundial with Design of Calendar, from Spring Rain Surimono Album (Harusame surimono-jo, vol. 3), ____________, Edo period (1615-1868), 1806, Japan, Privately published polychrome woodblock prints (surimono) mounted in an album; ink and color on paper, 5 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (14 x 18.4 cm), Prints, Ry_ry_kyo Shinsai (Japanese, active circa 1799-1823), Surimono are privately published woodblock prints, usually commissioned by poets or poetry groups as a form of New YearÕs greeting card. The poems, most commonly kyoka (witty thirty-one syllable verse), inscribed on the prints usually include felicitous imagery connected with spring, which in the lunar calendar begins on the first day of the first month. (Photo by: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)