Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting
height 135 mm × width 182 mm
Katsushika Hôtei Hokuga
Two Ladies Walk Past a Wall
Japan, c. 1800 - c. 1805
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer C.P.J. van der Peet Japanese Prints, Amsterdam, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1996;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1999
Object number: RP-P-1999-233
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
For more on the Seven Gods of Good Fortune or Luck, the Shichifukujin, a popular group of household deities, see RP-P-1962-331.
The artist
Katsushika Hotei Hokuga (d. 1856) was a follower of Katsushika Hokusai, who also used the names Hotei, Mantei and Manjiro. There is an unconfirmed - or at least insufficiently developed - theory that he is identical to Hotei Gosei.
Entry
Two ladies walk past a stone wall overgrown with grass, the walls and roof of a stone storehouse in the distance. A wooden sign on a nearby pole reads 'Ryodaishi'.
The Ryodaishi Fair, Daishi, from A Series of Seven Gods of Good Fortune, Shichifukujin no uchi.
The print-title is inscribed within a cartouche shaped as a mallet, the traditional attribute of Daikoku, the God of Fortune, further identifying the subject of the print. Daishi, the title of the print, is an abbreviation of Ryodaishi, a fair held at the Jigando Temple at Ueno on the 3rd and 18th days of each month. The connection to Daikoku is obvious — he is the God of Fortune.
Two poems by Sakanoue Utawaku and Senkintei Joran [also Kinsha or Kinshatei, a judge of the Senshugawa].2
The print-title in this series by Hokuga is inscribed here within a cartouche shaped as the Hammer of Chaos, Konton no tsuchi, the emblem of Daikoku.
Issued by an unidentified poetry club
Signature reading: Hokuga ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 136
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Katsushika Hôtei Hokuga, Two Ladies Walk Past a Wall, Japan, c. 1800 - c. 1805', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.359189
(accessed 10 January 2025 14:51:40).