Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments and blindprinting (on the toy)
height 204 mm × width 184 mm
Utagawa Kunisada (I)
Two Kites
Japan, Japan, Japan, 1825
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer C.P.J. van der Peet Japanese Prints, Amsterdam, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1987;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-643
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865) was a pupil of Utagawa Toyokuni, who dominated the field of kabuki prints until his death. Kunisada's prints of beautiful women, bijinga, were also very successful. Only well after he had established himself as a designer of actor prints did he enter the world of surimono design, becoming the most prolific designer of surimono in the Utagawa tradition. He also used the art-names Ichiyusai, Gototei and Kochoro.
Entry
Two kites, one shaped as a falcon, the other a rectangular blue kite with a silver circle in the centre. In the foreground a diabolo-like toy with its bow.
The Fourth Right: Kites, Yonban migi – Tobimaru, from the series A Comparison of Cocks, Niwatori awase.
Kite flying was a popular New Year’s pastime.
Two poems by Kinjuen Futaki [later Buwaian Futaki, also Komokuen or Sankai Chinjin, a judge of the Sugawararen, d. 1843],2 and Shakuyakutei [Nagane, 1767-1845, earlier Asagi no Uranari. As Sugawara no Nagane, he established his own poetry club, the Sugawararen, publishing from 1826].3
The poem by Shakuyakutei reads:
Against the deep blue stretch of the sky, the strings of the kites amuse themselves by writing.
Issued by the Sugawawaren(?)
Signature reading: on request, motome ni ojite Kunisada ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 547
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Utagawa (I) Kunisada, Two Kites, Japan, 1825', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.446742
(accessed 24 November 2024 00:24:07).