Children Playing with Battledores as Their Mother Prepares a Plum Branch for a Flower Arrangement

Surimono prints were often sent out by poetry societies to their members at the New Year, and this print includes several auspicious symbols appropriate to that festive time.

A mother sits on a veranda, carefully pruning a blossom-ing plum branch for an ikebana flower arrangement. Two girls play hanetsuki 羽根突き, a game played at the New Year similar to badminton, but in which the players try to keep a shuttlecock aloft as long as possible. The paddles, or battledores, display lucky motifs. The older girl’s paddle has an image of nanten 南天, or nandina. It has red leaves in the spring and is lucky because the name sounds like “overcoming difficulties” (nan o tenzuru 難を転する). The younger girl’s paddle has symbols of the Seven Lucky Gods, who were believed to visit Earth at the New Year. The clouds in the background are embossed and rise slightly above the paper’s surface.