Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments
height 218 mm × width 189 mm
Katsushika Hokusai
Two Women and a Boy Seated by a Brazier
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, 1868 - 1912
Inscriptions
- collector's mark, passe-partout, lower left, printed: JABdH with a rooster.
- collector's mark, verso, stamped
Provenance
…; collection J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-480
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) first studied with Katsukawa Shunsho but later developed his own style. He was occasionally influenced by various other traditions, and designed thousands of calendar prints and surimono from 1787 until about 1810. His surimono production diminished in the 1810s but he resumed his former output between 1321 and 1825. He is best known for his landscape prints of the 1830s.
Entry
A woman depicting a woman holding a kettle apparently waiting for another woman to prepare the brazier, a young boy looks on. A folding screen behind.
The screen is decorated with New Year's scenes, such as Manzai dancers and a blossoming plum.
Three poems by Torintei Tokuma, Rokuzotei Takarama and Danjuro [Utei] Enba, aged 74 [1743-1822, Tatekawa Enba I, also known as Karasutei Enba and Momokuri Sanjin, a famous gesaku writer who also edited several kyokabon in 1807 and 1811].2
The poem by Tokuma relates to the scene in the design:
At daybreak the buckets we carried until yesterday are used for drawing the first water of the New Year - today's tea will be great.
The poem by Enba summarises the ingredients for Lucky Tea, reading:
Long-lived people like Jurojin invariably add beans, pepper, plums and one old man to make their Lucky Tea.
Issued anonymously
Meiji-period (1868-1912) facsimile of a surimono issued by followers of the poet Utei Enba in 1816
Signature reading: _zen _Hokusai Taito hitsu
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 228
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Katsushika Hokusai, Two Women and a Boy Seated by a Brazier, Japan, 1868 - 1912', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200467511
(accessed 23 December 2025 21:11:58).