Object data
nishikie, with blindprinting
height 184 mm × width 256 mm
Hasegawa Settan
A Family of Cranes
Japan, 1808
Provenance
…; collection Gasai Sadachika, Japan;…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1995;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1999
Object number: RP-P-1999-257-22
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
This print was preserved in an album apparently compiled by Gasai Sadachika at the age of 67 in the autumn of the Year of the Dog in the Kaei period, Kanoe inu, 1850, containing works predominantly by Settan and other designers. For more prints from this album, see e.g. RP-P-1999-257-1.
The artist
Hasegawa Settan (1778–1843), a pupil of Utagawa Toyokuni, was probably best known for his illustrations to the Illustrated Famous Places of Edo, Edo meisho zue (1834/1836), and the Annual Events in the Eastern Capital, Toto saijiki (1832). He received the honorary rank of hokkyo in about 1824.
Entry
A family of cranes under a pine tree, a large crane flying in front of a red sun, two long-tailed turtles, minogame, on the beach in the foreground.
Cranes and long-tailed turtles are popular auspicious symbols for the New Year. Turtles are believed to grow a tail of seaweed after reaching the age of 10,000 years.
The print is designed to resemble a page of a book with the ‘pillar’, hashira, separating the image and text.
To the left a haiku poem preceded by an introductory text and the note ‘New Year of the Dragon’, Tsuchinoe tatsu no eitan, i.e., 1808.
One anonymous poem, possibly by the designer.
Issued by the poet and the designer(?)
Signature reading: Hasegawa Settan
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 50
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Hasegawa Settan, A Family of Cranes, Japan, 1808', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.363644
(accessed 21 September 2024 21:36:38).