Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments
height 195 mm × width 175 mm
Ishikawa Utayama
Monkey Reaching for the Moon's Reflection
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan, 1824
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1989;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-657
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Ishikawa Utayama designed a small oeuvre. It is difficult to ascertain if he is the same as the Ishikawa Utayama listed in the Ukiyoe ruiko as a designer from the Bunka period (1804-18) who worked in a style closely following that of Utamaro. Ukiyoe jiten lists the same designer both as Ishikawa Utayama (copying the information in Ukiyoe ruiko) and as Ishikawa Kazan, making him a designer following the style of Kikugawa Eizan.
Entry
A monkey holding on to the branch of a pine tree, trying to reach the moon's reflection in the water below.
The picture is framed as if it were a standing screen, tsuitate, of the type normally placed directly inside the entrance of houses to repel evil spirits, based on the belief that evil spirits can only move in straight lines.
Three poems by Shomontei Kitaru [also Kotei, a pupil of Hokutoan and a member of the Hokutoren; later established his own Koishikawaren].2 , Seigetsutei Mitsumaru and Hamitei Metsumi.
Obviously, the poem by Kitaru inspired the design, speaking of 'putting out a standing screen', 'the monkey's arm' and the 'moon in the water'. The other two poems also refer to the moon reflected in the water.
Issued by the poets
Signature reading: Utayama
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 480
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Ishikawa Utayama, Monkey Reaching for the Moon's Reflection, Japan, 1824', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.435455
(accessed 26 November 2024 11:01:24).