Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting
height 134 mm × width 184 mm
Teisai Hokuba
Two Women
Japan, Japan, Japan, 1803
Inscriptions
-
lower left, in red ink, rectangular seal of the block-cutter, reading: Kenkō Tora's chisel, no tō
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer C.P.J. van der Peet Japanese Prints, Amsterdam, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1986;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-581
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
It is difficult to establish precisely what the idea behind the composition of this series was. As with so many surimono series of the early 19th century, women play a major role in the designs. The series seems to have been instigated by the circle of poets around Teikinsha, who also collaborated with Sori, Hokuba and others on the album Kyoka on the Gruel Spoon, Kyoka kayuzue, of 1804.2 The poet also appears on a Hokusai surimono for 1809.3
For other designs from this series (of nine designs?), see:
Garyo ume4
A shamisen teacher5
Two courtesans, one in bed, the other by a screen6
A woman drying a large sakebowl with a towel held by another woman7
A woman seated by a brazier showing a book to a standing courtesan8
- all with Teikinsha as the poet in the far left position.
The artist
Teisai Hokuba (1771-1844) was a pupil of Katsushika Hokusai. He used the art-name Teisai. There also seems to have been a Hokuba II.
Entry
Two women by a large cloth bag. One of them sits on the floor, holding a wooden plaque inscribed with the word 'Spring', Haru.
Spring, Haru, from the series Nine Plays for Spring Amusement, Harukyogen kyu no maki.
The inscription on the wooden plaque is taken here as indicating the title of the print. The cloth wrapped around the large package is decorated with a large stylised horse in reserve, shaped as a personal seal often used by Hokuba, 'horse' being ba in Japanese.
The print has the dating 'New Year of the Boar', I no hatsu haru, i.e, 1803. The four holes near the left edge indicate that this print was bound together by an earlier collector.
Two poems by Jakusosha Hayanori and Teikinsha [Fude no Ayahito, a judge of the Honchoren, died in his fifties in 1813].9
Issued by the Honchoren(?)
Signature reading: Hokuba ga
Block-cutter: Kenko Tora
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 123
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Teisai Hokuba, Two Women, Japan, 1803', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.422451
(accessed 23 November 2024 04:52:04).