Object data
nishikie, with blindprinting
height 134 mm × width 200 mm
Shûraku
Gathering the Seven Herbs of Spring
Japan, Japan, Japan, 1800
Provenance
…; purchased from the dealer Hotei Japanese Prints, Leiden, by J.H.W. Goslings (1943-2011), Epse, near Deventer, 1991;1 by whom donated to the museum, 1991
Object number: RP-P-1991-680
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
For other designs by this amateur designer, see Mirviss (as Shunen).2
The artist
Shuraku was an occasional amateur designer.
Entry
A lady and her maidservant walking along the banks of a stream, the maidservant picking herbs. Behind them a young boy with a large box in a carrying cloth, furoshiki, decorated with toy monkeys. A willow tree at right.
The women are apparently gathering the Seven Herbs of Spring, Haru no nanakusa, seven herbs eaten in gruel on the 7th Day of the First Month. The stream is rendered in blindprinting only. For the toy monkeys decorating the boy's package, cf. AK-MAK-974 and AK-MAK-1580.
Two poems by Chisonsai Namanari and Furyuan Tokunari.3
The poem by Namanari is titled Wakanatsumu, 'Gathering herbs'.
Issued by the poets
Signature reading: Shuraku ga
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 185
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'Shûraku, Gathering the Seven Herbs of Spring, Japan, 1800', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.422477
(accessed 23 November 2024 15:07:58).