Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments
height 209 mm × width 183 mm
Shibanoya Sanyô
A Collection of Roof Tiles
Japan, Japan, c. 1815 - c. 1820
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Hasegawa, Japan, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1993;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1995
Object number: RP-P-1995-301
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
It is interesting to compare this print with the print depicting Ushiwaka serenading Jorurihime2 apparently also designed by this poet and featuring an identical decorative border.
The artist
Shibanoya Sanyo, earlier Sanyodo Sanyo, also Tamashiba Sanyodo or Shibanoya Kamon, was a kyoka poet who studied with Shinratei Manzo, a judge of the Yomogawa from 1796, d. c. 1836.3 He moved to Kyoto in 1813 where he ran a kyoka Studio, the Kyokadokoro. He changed his name to Kurinomoto Shibanoya Kamon while running the studio. He frequently selected poetry for anthologies as well, which he often published himself. The earliest known are the 1798 Kyoka Annals, Kyoka nendaiki,4 and Kyoka on Rising Clouds, Kyoka tachikumoshu.5 His last anthology, Hazy Songs in Praise of the Eastern Capital, Roei Azuma dofu, dates to 1831.6 He occasionally designed surimono.
Entry
Images of eight roof tiles on a sheet of paper with intricate decorations, a label at top reading 'Images of Chinese Roof Tiles from the Ch'ing Dynasty' [1644-1912], Shinkan kawara no zu. To the right of the tiles inscriptions identifying the types or their origin, such as 'Roof Tile from the Imperial Palace', and so forth.
Collecting antiques, especially those from foreign countries such as China and Europe, was a well-regarded pastime of the cultural elite, particularly in the late 18th-and early 19th centuries. They even organised meetings where participants would bring rare objects, and prizes were awarded for the most surprising novelty. This print undoubtedly reflects this fashion.
One poem by Tamashiba Sanyodo [Sanyo], with two seals, one illegible, the other of Shiba Sanyodo [later Shibanoya Sanyo or also Kamon, studied with Shinratei Manzo, a judge of the Yomogawa from 1796, d. c. 1836].7 Although written in Japanese, the poem is in Chinese style and consists of four lines:
Chinese roof tiles are like jewels, they are as auspicious as words for Luck; after three thousand years, they will be crushed and made into precious ink stones.
Issued by the poet
Unsigned
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 477
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Shibanoya Sanyô, A Collection of Roof Tiles, Japan, c. 1815 - c. 1820', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.318725
(accessed 15 November 2024 15:56:02).