Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting
height 135 mm × width 185 mm
Kubota Shunman
Two Ladies and a Man Seen from the Back
Japan, Japan, 1809
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Robin Kennedy Fine Japanese Prints, Richmond, England, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1987;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-622
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Kubota Shunman (1757-1820), popularly called Kubo Shunman, was a pupil of Kitao Shigemasa who was also strongly influenced by Torii Kiyonaga and Katsukawa Shuncho. He created an attractive blend of the various ideals of feminine beauty prevalent in his time. He also used the art name Shosado. In addition to designing prints and making paintings, he was a poet and a writer and ran a studio that produced surimono. It was probably in this capacity that he introduced some of the innovations of the mid-Bunka period (1809-13), exploring the concept of large series of shikishiban surimono.
Entry
Two ladies, both of them holding a poetry-slip, tanzaku, a warrior standing behind them.
The emblems on the ladies' clothing identify them as the mistresses of the two Soga brothers - at right, oiso no Tora, the mistress of the elder Soga no Juro Sukenari; at left, Kewaizaka no Shosho, the mistress of the younger brother, Soga no Goro Tokimune. Behind them is Soga no Goro, identified by the butterfly emblem on his kimono.
The date 'New Snake Year', Tsuchinoto mi no haru, i.e., 1809, appears on the end of the sash of the lady at right.
One poem by Kichotei Norimaru [or Togan?]. The poem probably alludes to the butterflies identifying Kewaizaka no Shosho and reads:
The butterfly settles down on the golden petals of the flowers of Michinoku [Mutsu Province] but the Eastern wind blows it away.
Issued by the poet
Seal reading: Shunman
Produced by the Shunman Studio
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 76
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Kubota Shunman, Two Ladies and a Man Seen from the Back, Japan, 1809', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200467460
(accessed 11 December 2025 02:19:21).