Desk with Writing Set and Plum Flowers, from the series Ise Calendars for the Asakusa Group (Asakusa-gawa Ise goyomi), 『浅草側いせ暦』　文房具と梅熨斗, Edo period (1615?1868), probably 1814 (Year of the Dog), Japan, Polychrome woodblock print (surimono) ; ink and color on paper, 8 1/4 x 7 3/8 in. (21 x 18. 7 cm), Prints, Kubo Shunman (Japanese, 1757?1820) (? ), Surimono are privately published woodblock prints, usually commissioned by individual poets or poetry groups as a form of New Year?s greeting card. The poems, most commonly kyōka (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