Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and embossing
height 140 mm × width 187 mm
Utagawa Kunisada (I) (attributed to)
A Standing Man with a Book in His Hand
Japan, c. 1825 - c. 1830
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Kunsthandel Huys den Esch, Dodewaard, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1985;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-559
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) was a pupil of Utagawa Toyokuni, who dominated the field of kabuki prints until his death. Kunisada's prints of beautiful women, bijinga, were also very successful. Only well after he had established himself as a designer of actor prints did he enter the world of surimono design, becoming the most prolific designer of surimono in the Utagawa tradition. He also used the art-names Ichiyusai, Gototei and Kochoro.
Entry
A standing man holding an open book. Behind him, on the floor, folded papers on a cloth wrapper.
Parrot Komachi, Omu, from the series A Parody on the Seven Komachi, Mitate nana Komachi.
For general notes on the series, see RP-P-1995-285.
The folded paper features the characters Mimasu ('three rice measures'), a reference to the stage crest, mon, of the actor depicted in the print, identifying him as Ichikawa Danjuro VII.
Ichikawa Danjuro VII (1791-1859) acted under the name Danjuro from XI/1800 to III/1832, when he resumed his prior name Ichikawa Ebizo V. The association with Omu Komachi is complicated and not very clear. In the original, Komachi has retired from the world and stopped writing poetry. She initially refused to answer a poem she received from the emperor, but as this would have been considered extremely impolite, she returned it with just one syllable altered.
One anonymous poem.
Issued by the Katsushika Mimasuren,
Unsigned
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 210
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'attributed to Utagawa (I) Kunisada, A Standing Man with a Book in His Hand, Japan, c. 1825 - c. 1830', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200467508
(accessed 11 December 2025 07:15:43).