Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting
height 208 mm × width 272 mm
Teisai Hokuba
Court Lady with Branch of Plum
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, c. 1810 - c. 1820
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Kunstauktionshaus August Bödiger, Bonn, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1990;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-711
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Teisai Hokuba (1771-1844) was a pupil of Katsushika Hokusai. He used the art-name Teisai. There also seems to have been a Hokuba II.
Entry
A court lady holding a branch of plum blossoms. Another lady kneeling down in front of her, a page-boy partly visible behind the standing lady.
Four poems by Kokoro Fujimaro, from Sendai, Koenro Kiraku, Konanro Yamasumi (but Konando in RP-P-1958-325), and Asakusaan [Ichindo I, 1755-1821, a leader of the Asakusagawa (also known as Tsubogawa)].2
Hokuba collaborated frequently with the Asakusagawa, RP-P-1991-711 being an early example of a commission by individual members instead of a whole club. This print is another such example. Later, more specifically in 1820, 1823 and 1824, he was contracted as a designer for editions appearing under the emblem of this group, which sometimes also operated under the name Tsubogawa.
Issued by followers of the poet Asakusaan Ichindo
Signature reading: Teisai Hokuba ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 128
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Teisai Hokuba, Court Lady with Branch of Plum, Japan, c. 1810 - c. 1820', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200426480
(accessed 11 December 2025 15:26:05).