Object data
nishikie, with blindprinting and tsuyazuri
height 95 mm × width 127 mm
Utagawa Toyohiro
Courtier on Horseback Fording a Stream
Japan, 1810
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1986;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-590
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
For a somewhat similar design of a courtier with two attendants by a stream, but in a much larger format and featuring a more balanced composition, see Mirviss.2
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
A courtier on horseback fording a stream, his horse led by a servant. They are followed by a page-boy carrying the man's sword. On the bank flowering lespedeza.
The flowering lespedeza, hagi, identifies the stream as the Ide Crystal River, Ide no Tamagawa, one of a group of six streams known as the Six Crystal Rivers, Mutamagawa. They are all associated with poems by Shunzei. The man on horseback can thus be identified as the courtier and famous poet Ariwara no Narihira (825-80), to whom the Tales of Ise, Ise monogatari, was formerly attributed.
The format suggests that this print dates from the late 1790s. Although apparently complete at right and left, the print seems to have been trimmed slightly at the bottom and perhaps even considerably at the top. Additionally, based on the printing technique and especially the marked use of sharp blindprinting, it could be concluded that this is a work from the Bunka period (1804-18).
No poems.
Issued anonymously(?)
Signature reading: Toyohiro ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 191
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa Toyohiro, Courtier on Horseback Fording a Stream, Japan, 1810', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.422486
(accessed 26 November 2024 13:19:18).