Japan de luxe: The Art of the Surimono Prints at Museum Rietberg
Japan de luxe
The Art of the Surimono Prints
September 26, 2025 — July 12, 2026
With the exhibition Japan de luxe, Museum Rietberg showcases surimono, a distinctive form of Japanese colour woodblock print that emerged between the late 18th and mid-19th centuries.
Although surimono literally translates to ‘printed things’, these prints are far more than just that. Artfully designed and intricately printed on high-quality, unsized hōsho paper, each work is a gesamtkunstwerk.
Surimono were printed in small editions of 50 to 500, intended as intimate gifts commissioned by the urban bourgeoisie. They often served as status symbols for the select group who commissioned them, reflecting society at that time.
These luxurious greeting cards were made to mark seasonal festivals, personal and professional milestones and special cultural events. Their exquisite design delighted both givers and recipients, as did the multifaceted literary and cultural references contained in the poems and visual motifs.
Japan de luxe exhibits over one hundred prints. Most of them are gifts of Gisela Müller and Erich Gross and are shown here for the first time. This exhibition invites visitors to discover the elegance, poetry and hidden meanings of surimono.
