Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments
height 188 mm × width 248 mm
anonymous
Kintoki Chasing a Demon
Japan, Japan, c. 1815 - c. 1820
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Hasegawa, Japan, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1992;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1995
Object number: RP-P-1995-299
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
For a somewhat similar design by Hokuto(?), cf. Keyes.2 Judging from the printing technique, this design probably derives from Osaka. However, the poet Tachibana no Suzunari is an Edo poet.
Entry
Kintoki dressed in formal attire with court-trousers chasing away a demon, oni, by throwing beans from a rice-measure on an offering stand. At top right a twisted straw rope, shimenawa, with paper slips, gohei, orange leaves, daidai, and ferns, urajiro.
Kintoki, also Kintaro, the posthumous child of Sakata no Kurando, was raised in the Ashigara Mountains by his mother Yaegiri, commonly known as Yamauba. He is recognisable from the large character Kin on his clothing.
The ritual house cleaning on New Year's Eve - a task mostly performed by women - also required that the master of the house throw beans in all the corners while calling 'Luck come in, demons go out', 'Fuku wa uchi oni wa soto', which is the subject of this print. The twisted straw rope above the figures seems to include an indication of the long and short months, but how they should be interpreted as a means for dating this print could not be established.
One poem by Tachibana no Suzunari [1752-1836, possibly identical to Fukurindo Suzunari, family name Tachibanaya Choemon].3
The poem reads:
It is the wild crows that force open the door of heaven - pulling a dark face, Spring follows.
Issued by the poet
Unsigned
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 218
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'anonymous, Kintoki Chasing a Demon, Japan, c. 1815 - c. 1820', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.318714
(accessed 20 September 2024 21:25:17).