Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments
height 202 mm × width 159 mm
anonymous
A Courtesan Watches a Kamuro Playing with a Ball
Japan, Japan, Japan, c. 1825 - c. 1830
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Bernard Haase, London, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1999;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1999
Object number: RP-P-1999-237
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
This print seems to belong to an untitled series with poems on various insects within a large cartouche. Two more designs are currently known. The designs have been attributed to both Yanagawa Shigenobu2 and to Utagawa Kunisada.3
For others of the series, their titles here similarly taken from the headings indicating the subjects for the poems, see:
Matsumushi suzumushi: Pilgrim fighting a woman4
Hataori torioi: Woman holding roll of material looks outside5
Entry
A high-ranking courtesan stops to speak to a young apprentice, kamuro, playing with a ball in a long corridor in a brothel.
The Noisy Cricket and the Butterfly, Katsuwamushi kocho, from an untitled series alluding to Various Insects.
The title of the print, taken here from the heading indicating the subjects for the poems, seems to refer to the girl ‘making noise’ with her ball on the wooden floor, the butterfly probably referring to the traditional large knots tied in courtesans’ sashes.
Two poems by Rikkaen Fusanaga [also Rokajin, a judge of the Sugawararen],6 and Shakuyakutei [Nagane, 1767-1845, earlier Asagi no Uranari. As Sugawara no Nagane, he established his own poetry club, the Sugawararen, publishing from 1826].7
Each of the poems is preceded by a heading, referring to the two figures in the print. The first concerns the playing apprentice:
She looks so beautiful, the playing girl in her kimono woven with golden threads.
The second, alluding to the courtesan, reads:
Usually they are called ‘butterflies’ - soon, however, this bud of cherry blossom one sees in one’s dreams will turn into a cloud.
Issued by the Sugawararen
Unsigned
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 486
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'anonymous, A Courtesan Watches a Kamuro Playing with a Ball, Japan, c. 1825 - c. 1830', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.359173
(accessed 15 November 2024 12:25:58).