Object data
nishikie
height 202 mm × width 88 mm
Kubota Shunman (attributed to)
A Fisher-woman
Japan, Japan, Japan, c. 1800 - c. 1805
Provenance
…; 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-1991-684
Credit line: Gift of J.H.W. Goslings, Epse
Copyright: Public domain
Context
The Six Classical Poets is a selection of the greatest poets first singled out in the preface to the anthology of the Poets from Former Times and Today, Kokinwakashu (20 vols., 905). The group is comprised of the Heian period (794-1185) poets (dates mostly unknown) Ariwara no Narihira (825-80), Sojo Henjo, Kisen hoshi, Otomo no Kuronushi, Bunya no Yasuhide and Ono no Komachi. In this series they are represented by contemporary women engaged in various occupations.
For others of the series, see (also with the last poem signed Shosado Shunman):
Ariwara no Narihira: Woman holding flowering branch.2
The artist
Kubota Shunman (1757-1820), popularly called Kubo Shunman, was a pupil of Kitao Shigemasa who was also strongly influenced by Torii Kiyonaga and Katsukawa Shuncho. He created an attractive blend of the various ideals of feminine beauty prevalent in his time. He also used the art name Shosado. In addition to designing prints and making paintings, he was a poet and a writer and ran a studio that produced surimono. It was probably in this capacity that he introduced some of the innovations of the mid-Bunka period (1809-13), exploring the concept of large series of shikishiban surimono.
Entry
A fisher-woman holding a large basket under her arm raises her other hand over her head to shade her eyes from the sun as she looks in the distance. The basket probably contains her harvest of seashells.
Her clothing is decorated with a pattern of bundles of abalone, noshi. The ground has been printed to resemble silk (cf. RP-P-1991-682).
The Poet-Priest Kisen hoshi, Kisen, from an untitled series on the Six Classical Poets, Rokkasen.
Two poems by Shufutei Inaba, [1777-1830, possibly identical to Kadota or Nennensai Inaba, a pupil of Rokujuen, later a judge]3 and Shosado [Kubota Shunman, 1757-1820, a pupil of Tsumuri no Hikaru and a member of the Hakurakugawa].4
Issued by the Hakurakugawa Poetry Club(?)
Unsigned
Literature
M. Forrer, Surimono in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden 2013, no. 84
Citation
M. Forrer, 2013, 'attributed to Kubota Shunman, A Fisher-woman, Japan, c. 1800 - c. 1805', in Surimono from the Goslings Collection in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.422439
(accessed 23 September 2024 18:19:15).