Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments
height 209 mm × width 79 mm
anonymous
The God of Long-Life Writing
Japan, Japan, c. 1837
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Kunsthandel Huys den Esch, Dodewaard, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1995;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1999
Object number: RP-P-1999-250
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
The God of Long Life, Fukurokuju, seated on the floor and writing the number '77' on a large sheet of paper. Behind him a pile of New Year's decorations with ferns, urajiro, orange leaves, daidai, rice-cakes, a crayfish and chestnuts(?). Twisted straw ropes, shimenawa, with paper slips, gohei, ferns and orange leaves above him.
Large circular rice cakes, kagamimochi, literally 'mirror-cakes', made for the New Year, are usually broken as a trial of strength on the tenth day of the New Year. Their circular shape symbolises the unending cycle of time. Although this is necessarily speculative, it may well be that the number the god is writing refers to the 77th birthday of Sakuragawa Jihinari (1761-1837?), the poet's father/teacher. In view of the amateurish design, this may be quite likely. Fukurokuju is one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune or Luck, the Shichifukujin, a popular group of household deities (see RP-P-1962-331).
One poem by Sakuragawa Jinko, with a seal shaped as a tortoise. The poem refers to the God of Long Life writing the age of 77, considered a highly important birthday in Japan. For another example of a poem by Sakuragawa Jinko on a surimono, see RP-P-1995-289.
Issued by the poet
Unsigned
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 204
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'anonymous, The God of Long-Life Writing, Japan, c. 1837', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.359179
(accessed 23 September 2024 02:19:51).