Moveable rotating calendar mounted on elaborate wave-base with rabbit crest 1795

Curator: What immediately strikes me is the sheer precision. Everything seems calibrated, a dance of form and function intertwined. It is, for all practical reasons, useful art. Editor: Indeed. Here we have Kubo Shunman’s “Moveable Rotating Calendar mounted on elaborate wave-base with rabbit crest” created in 1795. The work employs the Ukiyo-e style which translates literally as the “pictures of the floating world” aesthetic movement that captures daily life through its printmaking tradition, and can be seen in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curator: Floating world…like time itself, eh? The print gives us such a curious, and I daresay poetic feeling. Editor: Well, Shunman clearly merges design with artisanal execution, so there's a directness to how this calendar communicates time and tradition using prints that circulated amongst merchants and elites, defining its role as both artwork and commercial piece. Curator: Don’t forget that wonderfully elaborate wave base! A rabbit crest too, which almost winks at the viewer with an acknowledgment that it's all about movement and transience, which are themes echoed in many artworks within the Ukiyo-e genre. It brings such unexpected liveliness and levity to this time-keeping piece, turning mundane schedules into celebrations. Editor: Interesting that you bring this up as an elaborate expression! From a more functional perspective, waves give a physical reality that remind users this device has both a front and back and base which also reminds the public that even mundane schedules require attention to every detail. Curator: A point well taken, indeed. How beautiful it is that the waves represent change, while rabbits imply fortune; one truly couldn't think of anything better to be kept beside a device for marking our everyday movements! Editor: Ultimately, Shunman, an artisanal trendsetter of his time, was an advocate of print as a means for practical and artistic consumption. Curator: Absolutely! "Practical and artistic consumption"—a concept as true today as it was back then, I suspect.