Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting
height 135 mm × width 181 mm
Hishikawa Sôri
Woman Feeding a Baby
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, 1804
Inscriptions
-
stamped on verso with mark of a paper crane (Japanese Gallery)
Provenance
…; the dealer Japanese Gallery, Londen (collector‘s mark);...; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1986;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-621
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
Nine designs in this series are presently known, one of them in an album of surimono made in 1804, now in the British Museum, London. It has not been possible, however, to identify all of them by their title.
For others of the series, see:
No. 3: Kekkon2
No. ?: Dogu3
No. 7: Kashiire4
No. 10: Ironaoshi5
The artist
Hishikawa Sori, previously Tawaraya Soji, also used the name Hyakurin, was a pupil of Katsushika Hokusai, who received the name Sori (III) in 1798.
Entry
An interior scene with a woman breastfeeding a baby, a maidservant sharpening a razor on a whetstone at left. To the right, a young boy holding a black-lacquered ewer stands by a water basin.
Number Eleven- The First Childbirth, Juichi - Hatsuzan, from the series The Rats' Wedding - A Series of Twelve Prints, Nezumi no yomeiri - Junimaitsuzuki.
Three poems by Senhoshu Ashiyuki(?), Wakaiki Hayanaga and Shinratei Manzo [I, 1754-1809, first a pupil of Hiraga Gennai, taking the name Furai Sanjin II, and later, from the 1780s, taking the names Morishima Churyo and Manzotei].6
The theme of this series, 'The Rats' Wedding', is of unknown origin, possibly even dating back to the Muromachi period (1392-1573). Produced in book format, it was a popular story for children, the first examples dating from around the late 17th- and early 18th centuries. As a series of single prints, it was probably first treated by Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814).
Issued by the Manjiren
Signature reading: Hishikawa Sori ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 119
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Hishikawa Sôri, Woman Feeding a Baby, Japan, 1804', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.422446
(accessed 15 November 2024 08:28:16).