Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments
height 193 mm × width 534 mm
Utagawa Toyohiro
A Warrior Holding a Hobby-horse
Japan, 1822
Inscriptions
- date
Provenance
...; collection Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949), Paris; his sale, London (Sotheby's), 8 June 2004, no. 445, to J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer;1 by whom donated to the museum, 2004
Object number: RP-P-2004-517
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
This print belongs to a somewhat unusual series in that it was not published all at once, but was issued one print per year. It appears to have been an initiative of the poet Sakuragawa Jihinari (1761-1837?). Calculating back, it seems he started the series in 1798 and continued issuing designs for more than 50 years. The first fifteen or so were possibly designed by Jihinari himself. He contracted Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1829) to make the designs for the following group, to which this and the following print belong. After Toyohiro died at the end of 1829, having finished his design for the New Year of 1830, Jihinari made the designs for a number of years, until Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) took over. The annotations of Jihinari's age in the designs he created in
the 1830s have led us to adopt a different year for his death than is used in most reference works: 1837 instead of 1833 (see also RP-P-1999-250, attributed to Sakuragawa Jinko). For another design by Jihinari, see AK-MAK-1555. This is not the only serial publication of New Year's surimono of this type, see RP-P-1991-646 and Ota2 for an example by the writer Shikitei Sanba (1776-1822).
For others of the series, see:
1: 1798 Jihinari - not identified
3: 1800(?) Jihinari3
9: 1806(?) Jihinari - Stanford Museum
15: 1812(?) Jihinari4
19: 1816 Toyohiro5
22: 1819 Toyohiro6
23: 1820 Toyohiro7
27: 1824 Toyohiro8
28: 1825 Toyohiro9
29: 1826 Toyohiro10
30: 1827 Toyohiro - Fogg11
31: 1828 Toyohiro12
32: 1829 Toyohiro13; Austin
33: 1830 Toyohiro14
35: 1832 Jihinari15
36: 1833 Jihinari16
37: 1834 Jihinari, age 7417
39: 1836 Jihinari, age 76, Private collection
43: 1840 Hiroshige18
44: 1841 Hiroshige19
51: 1848 Hiroshige - Lieftinck Sale 132, pl 3; Andon (2), 53
??: 1820s Toyohiro.20
The artist
Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1828) is said to have entered Utagawa Toyoharu's studio from 1782, though most of his work only seems to date from the early 19th century.
Entry
The Twenty-fifth Year, Nijugonentsuzuki, from the series The Happy Annual Custom of Asahina Continued by Jihinari, Jihinari kichirei Asahina, issued by the poet Sakuragawa Jihinari, 1822.
The warrior in this design is the popular hero Asahina Saburo, a servant of Kudo Suketsune, the villain in the Soga drama. Asahina defected to the Soga brothers (for a lengthier discussion about the protagonists in this kabuki drama, see RP-P-1958-416). He is portrayed across almost the full width of the sheet, dressed in a black kimono decorated with cherry blossoms floating on a stream, his breast bare, and wearing a belt, mawashi, around his waist. He holds a hobby-horse in his right hand, with the cloth reins hanging around his neck. A blossoming plum tree behind him.
The hobby-horse is an obvious allusion to the zodiacal sign for 1822, a Year of the Horse.
No poems.
Issued by the poet Sakuragawa Jihinari
Signature reading: Toyohiro ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 192
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa Toyohiro, A Warrior Holding a Hobby-horse, Japan, 1822', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.425612
(accessed 15 November 2024 04:20:35).