Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments
height 191 mm × width 81 mm
Utagawa Toyokuma
Two Manzai Dancers
Japan, Japan, 1832
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Kunsthandel Huys den Esch, Dodewaard, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1994;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1995
Object number: RP-P-1995-289
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Utagawa Toyokuma (probably born in the 1810s) was the grandson of Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1828).
Entry
Two men perform a Manzai dance below New Year's decorations consisting of twisted straw ropes, shimenawa, ferns, urajiro, and other leaves. One of them beats a hand-drum, the other, holding a fan and dancing, is dressed in a blue kimono with medallions reserved in white. On the fan a painting of a dragon among clouds. In front of the dancers, two low offering stands, a jewel on one of them, a set of three red-lacquered sake cups on the other. In the foreground a kettle of spiced sake, tososake, traditionally drunk on the occasion.
This print is a picture calendar, egoyomi, for the New Dragon Year 1832, the numerals for the long months, 1, 3, 7, 9, 11, intercalary 11, and 12, inscribed in the medallions on the dancers' kimono. The dating 'Year of the Dragon', Tatsu no toshi, i.e., 1832, is printed at top left.
One poem by Sakuragawa Jinko, with a seal shaped as a tortoise inscribed with the character for 'long life', kotobuki.
The poem refers to the rapid movements of the Manzai dancers. For another poem by Sakuragawa Jinko, see RP-P-1999-250.
Issued by the poet
Signature reading: Utagawa Toyokuma ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 194
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa Toyokuma, Two Manzai Dancers, Japan, 1832', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.318705
(accessed 23 September 2024 08:38:07).