The Minase Shell

The title of this series of surimono, Genroku kasen kai awase, refers to a popular pastime in which contestants selected classical poems and matched them to different types of shells. Here, three books and a cage containing rocks and two small frogs stand beside a painted screen. This surimono is entitled 'The Minase Shell', or Minasegai. Minase is the name of a river near Kyoto where, in 1488, three famous poets composed a collection of one hundred linked verses entitled 'Three Poets of the Minase River'. Their gathering is symbolised by the three books in the picture. The Minase River was famous for its yellow yamabuki flowers, which are illustrated in the screen in the background.