Object data
nishikie, with metallic pigments
height 138 mm × width 186 mm
Katsushika Hokusai
The Calligraphy Lesson
Japan, Japan, 1803
Inscriptions
-
stamped: lower right, in red ink, with seal of Hayashi Tadamasa
Provenance
…; the dealer or collection Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906) (L. 2971);...; purchased from the dealer C.P.J. van der Peet Japanese Prints, Amsterdam, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1991;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-678
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
For other Hokusai designs from this series, see:
Chanoyu: Tea ceremony -2,3,4
Kyoka: A woman about to inscribe a fan -5
Woman with lantern by a gate discovers Yoshitsune playing the flute;
Two women making sand and stone landscapes;
Dengaku dancing: Three dancers;
A monkey trainer;
Boy by New Year's decorations lifting a sake cup.
The artist
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) first studied with Katsukawa Shunsho but later developed his own style. He was occasionally influenced by various other traditions, and designed thousands of calendar prints and surimono from 1787 until about 1810. His surimono production diminished in the 1810s but he resumed his former output between 1321 and 1825. He is best known for his landscape prints of the 1830s.
Entry
A woman helps a young girl hold a brush before she dips it in the ink and writes on a large sheet of paper on a writing table.
Calligraphy, Sho, from A Series of Thirty-six Traditional Accomplishments, Shogei sanjuroku no tsuzuki.
One poem by Asakuraan [Hashi no] Sansho [a judge of the Tsubogawa].6
The Six Traditional Accomplishments, Rikugei, a concept dating from as early as the Chinese Eastern Chou dynasty (770-c. 256), consist of etiquette, music, archery, horsemanship, literature, calligraphy, and mathematics. Exactly how the Tsubogawa decided on the 36 accomplishments of this series is difficult to say. The series was jointly produced by Hokusai and his pupil Hishikawa Sori. The dating given here, 1803, or 'New Year of the Boar', Mizunoto i no toshi, appears on several other designs in the series.
Issued by the Asakusagawa (also known as Tsubogawa)
Signature reading: Gakyojin Hokusai ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 101
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Katsushika Hokusai, The Calligraphy Lesson, Japan, 1803', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.363079
(accessed 24 September 2024 13:20:07).